IN March George Osborne announced “We will abolish the annual tax return”.
I hope that none of your readers will be fooled into thinking that they don’t need to do a tax return. Paper tax returns must be submitted by September 30 Meanwhile efiled returns must be submitted by January 31 or an automatic £100 penalty will be charged.
The grain of truth behind the bold pre-election promise of ‘abolishing tax returns’ is that they must all be done online by 2020 and HMRC will pre-populate your return with the information they already hold – wages information from your employer, pension details and interest received from banks.
However, all this relies on the government delivering a major IT system upgrade for HMRC.
Given past performance on delivering major IT projects, 2020 may simply mean after the next election.
Sam Corcoran MA(Oxon), FCA, CTA (Fellow) Cheshire
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here