11.13 million people were required to file a self assessment tax return for their income for the 2013-14 tax period. There are two deadlines to comply with - either file on paper and post the return or submit electronically via the HMRC website. Paper returns had an earlier deadline of 31st October 2014. The final deadline to file online passed this Saturday (31st January).
According to new figures released by the taxman, of all tax returns filed, 85.5 per cent were completed online. Around 4.3 million people opted to wait until January and filed electronically - this is equivalent to nearly 50 per cent of all online tax return submissions for 2014.
So, with 10.24 million people having successfully beat the deadline this means around 890,000 tax returns are still outstanding. Unfortunately this means an instant £100 penalty will be applied for these taxpayers - regardless of any tax amount due. A haul of £89 million for the revenue in day one penalties alone. This is actually £21 million less than the revenue clawed last year in penalties as there were 210,000 fewer late tax returns this year.
Traditionally the actual deadline day is the busiest for the online system that must cope with the huge numbers of people submitting online. As this year's deadline day fell on a Saturday it was actually the penultimate day, Friday 30th January, that had the honour of busiest hour. Nearly 50,000 tax returns plowed through the online system between 1pm and 2pm - equivalent to over 800 every minute.