In a new video published on his social media platform, the MoneySavingExpert.com founder highlighted to upcoming self-assessment deadline, which is on January 31
Martin Lewis has issued a warning to millions of people due to pay tax this month.
In a new video published on his social media platform, the MoneySavingExpert.com founder highlighted to upcoming self-assessment deadline, which is on January 31.
You may need to file a tax return if you are self-employed, or if you earned untaxed income above £1,000 outside your regular employment. Those who make money from property may also need to declare this income.
You can find an extensive list of all the reasons why you may need to fill in a self-assessment below. The upcoming January 31 deadline relates to the 2024/25 tax year.
If you file your tax return late, you will be fined £100. If you still don’t file your self-assessment after three months, you’ll be charged additional fines of £10 a day, up to a maximum of £900.
After six months, you’ll get a further penalty of 5% of the tax owed or £300, whichever is greater, and you’ll pay the same again after 12 months if you still haven’t filed.
The deadline for paying any tax owed is also January 31. You will be charged 5% of any tax unpaid after 30 days, six months and 12 months. Interest will also be charged on late payments.
HMRC revealed that as of January 5, some 5.65million people had still to file their self-assessment.
In the video, Martin said: “Do you need to do a tax return? If you do, it’s urgent. The self-assessment tax deadline is the end of this month, the 31st of January and 5.6 million people who do need to find one haven’t done it yet.
“If that’s you, get your skates on because if you miss the deadline there’s £100 fine but more painfully there’s also 7.75% interest on unpaid tax.
“In fact what that means is, even if you can’t do the forming time, have a rough guess at what you owe and pay that because that would reduce any interest you needed to pay pay for late payment of your tax.”
The founder of MoneySavingExpert.com went on to say that anyone HMRC has told to pay tax, must do so, adding: “If you’ve been sent a self-assessment tax form, you have to do it, even if you don’t think you have to.”
According to Money Helper, you may need to fill out a self-assessment form if:
- Your self-employment income was more than £1,000 (before taking off anything you can claim tax relief on)
- Your income from renting out property was more than £2,500 (you’ll need to contact HMRC if it was between £1,000 and £2,500)
- You earned more than £2,500 in untaxed income, for example from tips or commission
- Your income from savings or investments was £10,000 or more before tax
- You need to pay Capital Gains Tax on profits from selling things like shares or a second home
- You’re a director of a company (unless it was a non-profit organisation, such as a charity)
- You, or your partner’s, income was over £60,000 and you’re claiming Child Benefit
- You have income from abroad that you need to pay tax on, or you live abroad but have an income in the UK
- Your total taxable income was over £150,000
- You’re a trustee of a trust or registered pension scheme
- Your state pension was your only source of income and was more than your personal allowance
- You received a P800 from HMRC saying you didn’t pay enough tax last year
