Tax agents offer a valuable service to their clients and contributed towards the success of Self Assessment 2023 (SA23). Over half of the 12 million tax returns received by the SA23 deadline were submitted through a tax agent. Over half of these (54%) were submitted in January, with 540,000 coming in on deadline day.
Now that we’ve entered a new tax year, tax returns for 2022 to 2023 can be submitted any time now, up until the deadline. We’re strongly encouraging agents and individuals to submit their tax returns well before the January deadline for the following reasons:
- filing now, does not mean customers pay now — the payment deadline of 31 January remains the same and many customers are not aware of this
- customers will find out what they owe (if anything) in advance — knowing what they need to pay will help them make informed decisions about their finances — it might mean they can book a holiday or make an investment, or it might mean they have to budget and try and save money
- knowing what your clients owe might mean they could reduce their payment on account due in July
- they’ll find out sooner if they’ve paid too much tax and are due a refund
- they can avoid the chance of penalties by getting their tax return done and out of the way, meaning they can concentrate on the important things in their life
- avoid last minute stress — HMRC’s busiest time is January, so call wait times are longer as services are under pressure — also, if something goes wrong or if they (or you) need support, then it means it will not be a rush to sort it out before the deadline
- if they cannot pay, then they’ll know in advance and can set up Budget Payment Plan
Tax agents can support their clients by providing the advice given above and by putting processes in place to nudge clients into filing early. This will help demonstrate the value of agents in helping their clients be efficient, organised and it will save them any unnecessary stress.
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