Call to end tax return scramble

As the nation scrambled to meet yesterday’s self assessment deadline, a small business pressure group is calling for common-sense changes that would make administering the self assessment scheme easier for everyone.

According to some reports, up to one million taxpayers could have missed the 31st January deadline, with late payers facing automatic fines of £100. The Inland Revenue also has the power to fine the especially tardy £60 per day and even impose a penalty of up to 100 per cent of the outstanding tax in addition to the tax itself.

The Federation of Small Businesses believes that taxpayers, and indeed the Revenue, would benefit from anything that spreads the flow of tax returns more evenly throughout the year - particularly because the current deadline falls so soon after Christmas.

Self-employed

One option would be for the self-employed to be allowed to file their tax returns within a year of their accounting date.

Simon Sweetman of the FSB’s taxation unit and a member of UKTECH's Ask An Expert panel said: "Human nature being what it is more and more people are leaving filling in their tax return until the last two weeks before the deadline. The problem gets worse every year and the system is then clogged for months to come. It makes sense to me to allow different types of taxpayers to file their returns at different times of the year."

Common-sense

Other 'common-sense' changes proposed by the FSB include:

• A facility to pay income tax by direct debit in monthly instalments,
  
• A facility to pay over the internet using a credit card. Last year less than 10 per cent of 9.3m self assessors filed their tax returns online and the FSB believes that the Inland Revenue should do all it can to encourage electronic filing,
  
• A single point of contact in a local tax office, rather than call centres, to assist people completing their returns.