Many of you will have received an email from HMRC recently inviting you to submit your Self Assessment tax return earlier this year. Though the online Self Assessment filing deadline is 31 January 2022 (31 October 2021 for paper submissions), there are some benefits to filing early if you are able to.
Filing your Self Assessment tax return earlier can give you peace of mind, and help you better manage your tax bills so that you don’t get a nasty surprise in January. When returns are filed early, the payment on account (POA) for the next period is more likely to be correct, providing you with more certainty over your obligations. Moreover, returns filed early (before the end of September) allow for tax liabilities less than £1,000 to be included in your tax code for the following year.
HMRC have said in a press release that if you file early and are owed a refund, this will be processed sooner – ‘within a few days.’ While it is true that the filing of your tax return is the starting point for the refund process, you may wish to take this information with a pinch of salt as during the pandemic refunds have been significantly delayed – up to as much as 5 months! Some taxpayers will also be subject to verification checks to combat fraudulent claims, which again will cause a delay in processing of refunds.
HMRC have also said that they have no plans this year to extend the tax return deadline or suspend fines for late filing like they did last year during the pandemic, so clearly this encouragement to file early is part of a wider drive to ensure everyone is organised well before the deadline. It also helps us here at E R Grove if we don’t have to do everyone’s tax returns at the same time – so our number ninjas will be your best friends if you do decide to file early…
