Tax advice of the week: Get your tax return in early

published 24 December 2008

Tax returns are hardly a festive subject, but hundreds of thousands of us regularly miss the deadline, handing the Treasury an easy £500m, so it pays to plan ahead. The deadline for filing online tax returns is 31 January. If you miss it you will automatically incur a £100 penalty while any tax due is subject to interest and surcharges. If you haven't used an online government service online before, you will need to register for self assessment and wait for your activation PIN to arrive in the post, for which you should allow seven working days.

While filing on Christmas and New Year's Day (as 489 and nearly 3,500 people respectively did last year) may be too depressing to contemplate, traffic peaks during the final week of January, which can make filing then time-consuming. Make sure, also, that you have all the correct documentation to hand eg, your P60, details of pension contributions and charitable donations and bank or building society interest. Lastly, remember that it's not just a question of getting the form in. Any tax owed needs to be paid by 31 January and you may also have to make a payment on account. Happy Christmas!