31 January or (31 January minus 7 days) deadline?

Well it only seems like yesterday that we posted about the 31 October deadline for submitting the hard copy paper income tax returns. Today is 29 January and perhaps more importantly if you’re a UK tax payer who has yet to submit your Income Tax Return, Sunday is 31 January.

The deadline for submitting your UK tax return electronically is 31 January following the tax year in question. So for example, the deadline for submitting your tax return electronically for tax year 2008/09 (6 April 2008 to 5 April 2009) is 31 January 2010 – i.e. this Sunday! If you haven’t submitted your tax return yet then you’ve probably got a busy weekend ahead of you.

If you’re in the UK then there really is no excuse for forgetting the deadline. Moira Stewart, who worked for the BBC for over 30 years, has been fronting a campaign by HMRC to remind tax payers about the deadline. TV, radio and press adverts have been bombarding us in the UK for the last month or so.

What surprises a lot of people though is that when a tax payer registers for the online service they are sent details of their user name and password through the post. HMRC take up to 7 working days to register site users so if you were planning on spending this weekend doing your electronic tax return but have yet to register on the HMRC site then unfortunately you will receive the £100 fine for late submission as you won’t be registered before the 31 January deadline and hence won’t be able to submit the return before the deadline.

What is also important to remember is that 31 January 2010 is also the deadline for paying any outstanding amounts of tax for 2008/09. Payment of any outstanding tax after this date will be liable to interest.