Reasonable Excuses For Late Tax Return

Those of you who have missed the 31 January deadline for submitting their tax returns online, may be able to avoid a penalty if they have a "reasonable excuse".

HMRC lists the types of excuses that it deems to be "reasonable":

"You can appeal against some penalties if you have a reasonable excuse, eg for your return or payment being late.

What may count as a reasonable excuse

A reasonable excuse is normally something unexpected or outside your control that stopped you meeting a tax obligation, eg:

• your partner or another close relative died shortly before the tax return or payment deadline
• you had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your tax affairs
• you had a serious or life-threatening illness
• your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online return
• service issues with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online services
• a fire, flood or theft prevented you from completing your tax return
• postal delays that you couldn’t have predicted

You must try to send your return or payment as soon as possible after your reasonable excuse is resolved.

What won’t count as a reasonable excuse

The following won’t be accepted as a reasonable excuse:

• you relied on someone else to send your return and they didn’t
• your cheque bounced or payment failed because you didn’t have enough money
• you found the HMRC online system too difficult to use
• you didn’t get a reminder from HMRC

If you have a disability

If you have a disability and claim to have a reasonable excuse that prevented you from meeting a deadline, HMRC will consider whether you made a reasonable effort to meet your obligation on time."

You will observe that the dog eating your tax records is not deemed to be "reasonable".

Good luck to those who were tardy!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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