900,000 miss tax return deadline

Almost 900,000 people will shortly be receiving a bill for failing to send in their tax return before the deadline, the Inland Revenue said today.

Self-assessment tax returns were due in on January 31, but of the 9.47m due, the Revenue received only 8.58m. Anyone who sends their tax return in late is automatically subject to a ?100 fine, and leave themselves open to a full investigation by the Revenue for the next 15 months.

However, a spokesman for the Inland Revenue said that people were no more lax in getting their returns back this year than they had been last year.

People who were due to make a tax payment before January 31 will have to pay interest of 6.5% on the amount they owe, and those who did not pay before February 28 will also be subject to surcharge of 5%.