The future of accountancy
in practice
News
Missed Your Tax Renewal Deadline?
20th September, 2011
Now that the 31 July 2011 renewal deadline for tax credits (Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit) has passed, most people have already renewed to avoid their tax credits payments being stopped.
However, in practice, if you missed the 31 July deadline, HMRC will first of all send out a ‘Statement of Account’, and if you complete the renewal within 30 days of the date of the statement, your claim can be restored from 6 April 2011.
Nicki Shipley, Partner, Smailes Goldie Chartered Accountants, of Hull and Barton, said:
“If you miss this date, the claim can still be restored if you can show ‘good cause’ for missing the first deadline and renew by 31 January 2012 at the latest.
“However, if this second date is missed, or if HMRC does not accept that there was good cause for missing the first one, you will drop out of the renewals process and will have to make a new claim for 2011/12, which can only be backdated by a maximum of three months. You will then have to repay some or all of the provisional payments you have received between 6 April 2011 and the date the old claim was cancelled.”
As well as losing out on tax credits, failing to deal with the renewal papers can attract a penalty of up to £300 for failure to submit an annual declaration, plus up to £60 per day if the failure continues after the initial penalty is imposed. These are not automatic penalties and will not be charged if you had a reasonable excuse for the delay and complied as soon as that became possible.
There is also a maximum penalty of £3,000 for fraudulently or negligently making an incorrect statement in response to an end of year notice. This can apply not just to an incorrect annual declaration, but also to the failure of an auto-renewal claimant to provide correct information when their annual review details are wrong.
For more information or advice, please contact Smailes Goldie Chartered Accountants on Hull 01482 326916 or Barton 01652 632927.
