The midnight deadline on October 31^st only applies to those submitting paper returns, for those who choose to process it online the deadline is extended to midnight of January 31^st.

HMRC estimate that around 75% of people now complete these returns online, and they are keen to get more people doing it this way, with the release of a number of online tools and guides. Further details can be found via the HMRC website.

The measures, which will see families with one parent earning over £44,000 lose their child benefit payment, are expected to save £1bn a year on the child benefit bill, which currently costs £12bn.

People will also be expected to declare on their tax returns whether they fall within the 40% and 50% tax brackets and the money will then be clawed back through the tax system.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has urged top-rate taxpayers to stop claiming child benefit altogether, saying this would be the “most sensible” thing to do.

This announcement is expected to cause more work for the HMRC and the problems look to have already started, with their spokesman saying, “The nitty-gritty will be decided; we don’t have any details yet”.

London-based accountant, Christos Charalambous, completed over 6,000 self assessment tax returns for clients. This included fictitious expenses claims in order to increase the tax repayments due. In addition, he understated the income he received from client fees on his personal returns and failed to register, declare and pay VAT due on his accountancy firm Charltons.

HMRC assistant director of criminal investigation Steve Armitt says:

“Charalambous is a thoroughly dishonest accountant who was motivated by greed. He betrayed the trust of innocent and vulnerable people to feed that greed. This deprived the nation’s public services of millions of pounds. Our aim is to pursue and prosecute those involved in this type of criminal activity and reclaim the proceeds of their crime.”

Passing Christos Charalambous’ sentence, His Honour Judge Richardson commented: “The offences are more serious as you were a chartered accountant. HMRC ought to be able to trust you as should your clients. You exposed them to the dishonesty that you practice. With tax enquiries, you responded with evasion and lies.”

The most popular time for submissions was between 4pm and 5pm on Friday, 29 January, when some 39,512 returns were received by HMRC.  However those that have missed the deadline could face a £100 penalty.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms said that one of the advantages of filing your tax return online is that HM Revenue and Customs would process your return faster, so any money you are owed is repaid more quickly.

HMRC also repeated the call for everybody to be extra vigilant with emails that appear to be from HMRC saying you are entitled to a tax return. An e-mail phishing scam in which recipients are told they are due a tax refund and asked to fill in an online form with bank or credit card details is still in circulation and victims have their accounts emptied or card limits used.

HMRC said it would never send out e-mails on the subject, as those who were due a refund were informed by post.

The Communications Workers Union has announced to Royal Mail their intention to hold two national strikes this week on 22 and 23 October, and further industrial action has not been ruled out. This is likely to affect delivery of paper tax returns to HMRC, which are due by 31^st October.  HMRC are aware of this and have advised contractors to be aware that;

1)      It’s your responsibility to make sure that your return is received on time. For paper returns the deadline is Saturday 31st October.

2)      You should consider filing online as you’ll have longer to file your tax return – until 31st January 2010.

3)      If you want to send your return on paper you can deliver it by hand to your nearest HMRC Office instead of posting it.

4)      If you deliver your tax return by hand on Monday 2 November, normal arrangements will apply and you won’t have to pay a late filing penalty.

5)      If you still decide to post your return, send it to your tax office as soon as possible.

6)      You won’t have to pay a penalty if you missed the deadline because of the postal strike – but you’ll need to be able to prove that you posted your return before 31 October.

Agents are advised to file their customers’ tax returns online. If they do want to send them on paper they should either post them as soon as possible or take them to their nearest HMRC Office.

To prepare and submit your Tax Return online you need to register for an online account. HMRC will then send you an activation code within 7 days so you can activate your account. Your tax liability will be calculated for you, and the chances of discrepancies are therefore lower than using the paper return.

For more information on the self assessment process, visit HMRC.