OT: last chance for online filing of your tax return...

[John Rumm]

Just in case anyone else had been putting off the tedious form filling moment, today is the day! ;-)

[Steve Firth]

Well only if someone is intending to drive up and drop the forms off by hand. Otherwise, Friday was really the last day.

Speaking as someone who got all his forms submited in time (just) I actually wish that accountants weren't into brinksmanship as much as they are.

[Andy Burns]

If you were going to do it on paper forms then 31st October was the last day

[Roger Mills]

In theory, you should be able to do it on-line today - provided the systems don't crash under the weight!

[Tim Watts]

Roger Mills wibbled on Sunday 31 January 2010 16:09

All done 2 weeks back. Already got my 68 quid[1] refund and paid 5p for SWMBO's...

[1] Then gave it back and more for a different tax return...

I started late Dec - good job. Needed username reminder (week by post, wrong email recorded), then password by post (another week). Actual job took 2 days (mostly finding bits of paper).

[Vernon]

Yes last few years we have used Taxcalc to submit our returns, and one of the really useful things it does is remember things like your gateway id and password. When you buy next years, you can import the previous years data, meaning all you need change is the figures. IIRC the software is

[geoff]

In message , Tim Watts writes

Yeah - cheque for 63p submitted for my wife

it will be interesting to see if they cash it

I was going to put both our amounts on one check just for fun, but ... the accountant wouldn't play along

[Steve Firth]

Ah OK, I'm probably getting mixed up with Corporation Tax returns.

[Adrian C]

[Richard Russell]

And even more astonishing (to me), on the odd occasion I've had a problem (e.g. an online form not accepting what I'd entered) a telephone call to the HMRC help desk has been answered quickly by a helpful and knowledgeable person, and in at least one case they fixed their software soon afterwards. An exceptional quality of service, worthy of praise.

Richard.

[Clive George]

I've also been enjoying the improvement in PAYE, corporation tax and companies house accounts - they're making it a lot easier with the online stuff. Corporation tax is still a bit hairy (too many different fields to fill in), but I much prefer it that way to paper-based.

[The Wanderer]

Likewise, but I can't understand why people put off the evil hour until the very last minute. Now I'm retired little problem getting the information together, mine was in last May.

[John Rumm]

To be fair, it has improved massively. The first couple of years it was pretty bad (and also stunningly useless since all that it did was capture data which was then printed, and IR staff then needed to re-key it into existing software to get the sums done!). These days it seems quite solid.

It may be saved by the deadline being over a weekend - all the accountants will have been hammering it on Friday rather than sunday along with all the public!

[Andrew Gabriel]

Like they did last year!

Did mine last weekend, to make sure I wasn't doing it at the last minute when the systems failed last year. (Fortunately, last year I did it 2 weeks before the deadline.)

For some years, they always owed me a refund, and they used to keep writing to me to tell me I needn't do a tax return the following year. Well, like hell I wasn't going to do one - I want my refund!

More recently, I've always owed them money. However, after they checked my return this year (and I'd paid), they wrote to me again saying I don't need to do one next year. How bizzare?

[Tony Bryer]

I filed mine online on Jan 21st - hopefully my last UK tax return - and already have the claimed refund in my account. Somehow I don't think this will make the front page of the Daily Mail. The cashback on my new Acer laptop took six weeks.

+1 for TaxCalc - have used it for years.

[Bob Eager]

My SIL is an accountant, and still had 28 returns to do as of last night...

[geoff]

When I bought a laptop, being expat living in Indonesia and posted the duly stamped form in the box at heathrow when I flew back out again, the C & E claime that they had never received it

[tim....]

No, neither can I

Doesn't stop me doing it though :-(

tim

[Dave Liquorice]

Presumably it psychologically delays the payment of the money even though you don't have to pay until 31 Jul/31 Jan.

I'll be doing 2009/10 as soon as I can. My income is a little volatile and I had a good year followed by a bad one so the "payments on account" based on the good year are rather high. Getting 2009/10 in quickly will fix the next three amounts at a nice low level. B-)

[John Rumm]

You can also send em a form to appeal a payment on account with the justification that you expect your income to be less next year.