A new penalty regime was introduced in April 2011 for those who
do not meet filing deadlines. HMRC says the penalties are to
motivate taxpayers to file their returns on time and to reduce
HMRC's own costs for chasing outstanding returns. Needless to
say the new penalties are higher than previously and are not
automatically reduced to nil even where a person has paid all the
tax due by 31 January 2012 or where there is no tax to pay.
Despite the above change, 500,000 people have still not
submitted their 2010/11 tax returns (which were due by 31 January
2012). The result is that from mid-August HMRC started issuing
additional penalty letters. These penalties are for a minimum of
£1,200 and are made up of:
