File Your Income Tax Return Before It’s Too Late

The deadline for filing your income tax return is barely 2 weeks away. If you are not ready with all the information that must be submitted, start collecting them already. Read the article to know more about what you should do.

The last date to send your income tax return for the current tax year 2014–15 to the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) is only about a couple of weeks away, that is, 31 January 2016. By that time, you are also required to clear any tax which you might be owing. Failing to do any or both of the ones would cause you to incur heavy penalties.

If you are not registered with the HMRC already, make sure you do so as soon as possible. There are many efficient and reliable apps like Tax Return UK (Download the app from either Google Play Store or Apple Store) that can be used to register for as well as file income tax return online. Although the authorities do not specify any particular date, it is a basic rule to complete the registration before 21 January. This is because it can take several days for the requisite activation codes to arrive once the registration has been done.

Usually the HMRC accepts few excuses for delayed filings of income tax return. However, the recent bad weather and flooding in UK can possibly be a valid reason. According to the authorities at HMRC, help would be available for those who produce genuine reason of flooding for missing the deadline. They have even given out a few suggestions that can be helpful for taxpayers when they are submitting their return.

If someone had capital gains or income during 2014–15 that must be taxed, they should have informed about it to the HMRC already. But if such is not the case, there is still time to do the registration. However, the task must be accomplished before the deadline, failing which would automatically trigger a late fine. After registering, it would take about 10 days for the user ID and password to arrive by post.

Even if there is just one additional income source or a capital gain that requires taxing, an individual must provide details of all their income during the year. The details must also include information about those sources where the correct tax amount has been deducted already. Each and every information must be gathered in advance from the bank, employer or other sources of income.

It is important to include refunds as well along with all the income sources. Taxpayers claiming refunds from inappropriately sold PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) that have been paid back with interest, must pay extra tax in case they are additional or higher rate taxpayers.

In addition to submitting any due tax before 31 January, somebody having a liability on any income source must also pay on account of 50 percent for the coming year.

Download the apps from here: Google Play Store & Apple Store