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HMRC is changing the tax return penalty system, aiming to punish repeat offenders and be more lenient towards those who make the odd mistake.
Penalties will be points-based rather than automatic. This means that those who consistently miss deadlines will accrue more points – and pay a larger fine than what’s in force currently.
Here’s what to watch out for when the new HMRC late submission penalty system starts.
There are different start dates depending on your tax obligation. The new points based penalty system will start from:
The date the points system will come in for Self Assessment tax payers hasn't been confirmed yet.
For businesses registered for VAT, the first monthly returns and payments affected by the penalties are due by 7 March 2023.
Updated 21 December 2022 to reflect the new timeline for introduction.
Instead of getting an automatic fine if you miss a deadline, under the new system you’ll get a penalty point.
The more deadlines you miss, the more points you get, until you reach your penalty threshold. Then you get a £200 fine (and another £200 fine for every subsequent deadline you miss).
Your penalty threshold depends on how often you have to make a submission:
There are separate points totals for each obligation you have. This means that if you fail to meet one obligation but successfully meet others, you’ll only accrue one set of points.
But if you fail to meet multiple obligations, points will accrue for each – even if they have the same submission frequency. This could result in heavy fines if you consistently miss deadlines across all of your responsibilities.
In general, if you make two late submissions relating to the same obligation in one month, you’ll still only get one point. HMRC says this is to give taxpayers a chance to improve without too many points accruing.
But there are some exceptions to this, relating to the Self Assessment obligations through Making Tax Digital starting in 2026. For example, if you have a quarterly Self Assessment deadline and an annual return due in the same month, you’ll get two points if you miss both.
Points last for two years, as long as you hit subsequent deadlines and don’t reach the penalty threshold.
But after you’ve reached that threshold, your points will only reset to zero when you’ve hit all of your deadlines for a particular time period:
You also need to have submitted all that was due over the previous two years.
Check the latest information on the UK government website.
What do you think about HMRC’s late submission points system? Let us know in the comments below.
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Sign up nowWritten by
Sam Bromley
Sam has more than 10 years of experience in writing for financial services. He specialises in illuminating complicated topics, from IR35 to ISAs, and identifying emerging trends that audiences want to know about. Sam spent five years at Simply Business, where he was Senior Copywriter.
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