HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has been criticised recently for fining taxpayers for failing to submit their self-assessment returns online – even though the deadline is not until 31 January.
Reports state that around 650 people who submitted their tax returns by the start of January were hit by the bogus late-payment penalty charges, although HMRC officials initially claimed that they had not issued the fines.
The taxpayers received letters from the taxman stating that they had missed the deadline and so should pay a penalty of £100, even though many of them had submitted returns almost a month ahead of the deadline.
The erroneous penalty notices came to light after a partner at an international law firm received a letter telling him he would be fined, even though he had submitted his return in plenty of time.
He said that the fine has yet to be cancelled and that he looks forward to receiving an apology from the taxman, which he intends to frame. However, on a more serious note, he said that while he can deal with such a notice, if one were to be sent to “normal taxpayers, particularly vulnerable people, that would be much more serious”.
When approached by the BBC, which had been informed about the fines, the HMRC claimed that they had not sent any early penalty notices.
However, the Revenue was later forced to backtrack after finding out that “hundreds of people” had wrongly been sent a late-payment fine of £100, attributing the mistake to “human error”.
In order to avoid an accurate penalty, taxpayers must submit their return online before midnight on Thursday 31 January.
