Hundreds of thousands leave Self Assessment to day of deadline, figures reveal

Ever wondered how many people file their tax return on the first day of the new financial year? And do you ever think about how many taxpayers leave their annual return to the very last minute?
Well, now you can find out. Ahead of the 31 January Self Assessment deadline, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published a list of “fascinating” facts and figures all about personal tax.
Here’s what caught our interest:

  1. For many, the start of the new tax year is just another day. But for 96,519 people, 06 April represents a day to get their tax affairs out of the way. That’s right, almost 100,000 completed their Self Assessment on the very first day they were able to.
  2. HMRC launched Self Assessment online filing 20 years ago this year. According to the regulator, just 38,000 taxpayers used the internet to file their tax return in the very first year it was available.
  3. The number of taxpayers completing an annual return online jumped from just 3.4 million in 2011 to an estimated five million in 2021.
  4. Some 702,171 Self Assessment returns were filed on 31 January last year, the day of the deadline.
  5. The most popular time for completing a tax return last year was between 16:00 to 16:59 on 31 January.
  6. A record 12.1 million taxpayers are estimated to complete a tax return for the 2019/20 tax year.

Commenting on the figures, Karl Khan, HMRC’s Interim Director General for Customer Services, said: “It’s 20 years since Self Assessment online was introduced and it’s how the vast majority of customers complete their tax return these days. Fewer and fewer people are doing it on paper each year.
“There’s still time for customers to complete their tax return before the deadline, and help and support is available on GOV.UK.”
For help and advice completing your Self Assessment, please get in touch with our expert personal tax team today.

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