Online tax return filing the biggest yet
By midnight on the 31st January 2015, HMRC had received a total of 10.24 million tax returns, with a record 85.5% being filed electronically.
Unsurprisingly, the busiest day for filing took place between 30th and 31st January, when HMRC received 980,000 returns.
The busiest hour occurred between 1 pm and 2 pm on 30th January, when almost 50,000 tax returns were received by the Revenue, at a rate of 830 per minute.
Deadline days’ busiest hour was between 11 am and midday, when around 32,000 returns were filed at a rate of 530 per minute. HMRC also answered 95% of calls first time on 31st January. One can only imagine that because deadline day fell on a Saturday, the volume of callers was not that great because a success rate of 95%, in my experience, is virtually unthinkable!
About 4.3 million individuals, around 43%, left it until January to submit their 2014 tax returns, although 1,773 people, presumably bored with the Christmas festivities, filed on Christmas Day. The day before saw 17,644 being lodged and on Boxing Day, those having recovered from the excesses of Christmas Day and who took to filing their tax returns numbered 4,811.
HMRC’s Director General of Personal Tax, Ruth Owen, said, “This is another record-breaking year for Self Assessment, with 210,000 more people filing their returns on time than last year.
We’re grateful to the overwhelming majority of people who sent their returns on time. If you’re one of the minority who missed the deadline, you still need to get your tax return to us as soon as possible, to avoid further penalties and interest mounting up.”
There are however around 890,000 individuals out there who have yet to file their tax returns as, in total, 11.13 million returns were due. Those people now face a £100 late filing penalty.
Leave a Reply