Martin Lewis has issued a warning to anyone who earns £50,000 ahead of HMRC fines. The BBC Sounds and ITV star spoke out on Twitter, now X, in his daily social media poll for his followers and readers to feed back on.
Mr Lewis said: “Today’s Poll: Have you filed your 2023/24 self assessment tax return yet (if you have to do one)? The deadline’s 31 Jan, miss it & its £100 fine 7.25% interest on unpaid amount. PS You usually only need do it if told to by HMRC plus some high earners, high savings interest, or earnt £50k+ & claimed child benefit.”
You may need to submit a tax return if you were self-employed and your income was more than £1,000. If you earned £1,000 or less, you may still need to do a self-assessment if you want to pay ‘class 2’ National Insurance contributions voluntarily to protect your entitlement to the state pension and certain benefits.
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You also may need to act if you earned more than £150,000 in taxable income. This threshold was £100,000 for the 2022/23 tax year but it’s been increased. If your income is between £100,000 and £150,000 and that was the only reason you had to complete a tax return for 2022/23, you should have got a letter from HRMC telling you that you don’t need to do one for 2023/24.
If you claimed Child Benefit when you or your partner earned more than £50,000 a year, if you earned £10,000 or more before tax from savings interest, investments, shares or dividends, if you earned money from renting out property or from other untaxed income, such as tips or commission or if you earned income from abroad you may also need to act.
Others who need to act are those who need to pay Capital Gains Tax, who received income from a trust and who filed a self-assessment tax return for the 2022/23 tax year (unless you’ve already told HMRC you no longer need to or HMRC has told you not to).