Reprieve for 31 Jan self-assessment filing date

The deadline for filing self-assessment tax returns will remain as 31st January.

Welcome news for taxpayers and the tax profession on tax return filing dates was unveiled recently at the ICAEW Tax Faculty’s Wyman Symposium, when Lord Carter announced that he would advise ministers to leave the date for electronic filing of self-assessment tax returns as 31 January but to bring forward the date for filing paper returns to 31 October.

In the March 2006 Budget, Lord Carter had recommended that from 2007-08 the filing period for paper returns should be reduced to six months – the new deadline should be 30 September – and the filing period for online returns should be reduced to eight months – the new deadline should be 30 November.

Pushing forward the dates by so much had created consternation in the tax profession, which is already having problems meeting the existing 31 January date where clients are not providing the required information on time.

Bringing forward the date for filing by so much would have been difficult if not impossible to meet in practice, and the main professional bodies lobbied hard for Lord Carter to change his mind. The lobbying appears to have worked.

Bringing forward the paper filing date to 31 October will still create problems, but the Government hopes that this will encourage a greater use of internet filing with the later deadline.

For further advice contact Andy Scott on 0118 923 5807.