Martin Lewis and his Money Saving Expert team have issued a warning to households over HMRC fines worth £100 being sent out for missing a key January deadline. MSE says 5.4 million people haven’t filed their tax return yet.
BBC and ITV star Mr Lewis said as of Monday 6 January, some 5.4 million people were yet to file their tax return, while almost 25,000 celebrated the New Year by filing on 1 January, according to the latest available figures from HMRC.
The MSE team advised: “5.4m people haven’t filed their 2023/24 tax return yet. Do it ASAP or risk a £100 fine & 7.25% interest. If you’ve been told to file a self-assessment tax return (or you were self-employed, earnt £150,000+, earnt £50k+ and get Child Benefit, or have £10k+ in savings interest), the deadline’s 31 Jan. Full help in tax return deadline.”
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You may need to submit a tax return if you were self-employed with an income of more than £1,000. If you earned £1,000 or less, you may still need to do a self-assessment of 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.
You may need to submit a tax return if you claimed Child Benefit when you or your partner earned more than £50,000 a year. This is known as the high income Child Benefit charge or if you earned £10,000 or more before tax from savings interest, investments, shares or dividends. Between April 2022 and April 2024, the Bank of England base rate rose from 0.75% to 5.25%.
You may need to submit a tax return if you earned money from renting out property or from other untaxed income, such as tips or commission, you earned income from abroad, you need to pay Capital Gains Tax. or if you received income from a trust.