Earlier today I wrote

Harry Redknapp has made tax fun and has allowed me to talk to football supporters for the first time in my life and be knowledgeable too!

The editor of AccountingWEB thought it good enough to include in their story on the Harry Redknapp case, which has had to be pulled because the comments may have been in contempt of court. And you thought accountants were boring!

I have never known so many people of differing backgrounds and interests follow a tax case so closely. Yesterday I found myself reading tweets from James Pearce, the BBC Sports News Correspondent, who is at the court. Every so often, he has to leave the courtroom so that he can send a tweet, Twitter and presumably the use of smartphones are forbidden in the courtroom itself.

I was so impressed with his coverage of events that I added him  to my Twitter list, TaxTweets, so thatI could read his tweets easier. Bearing in mind this list includes HMRC, Taxation magazine and The Tax Journal I thought I should at least tweet him and tell him, never expecting an answer.

Leaving aside the question of ‘Where do I get the money from?’, the date for paying your (Self Assessment) tax is approaching fast.

To pay online you’ll need  your Self Assessment reference and a note of the amount you have to pay.

Log on to your internet banking and select ‘HM Revenue & Customs’ from your bank/building society’s beneficiary  list (which is sometimes called a ‘payee list’) or use HMRC’s bank account details to set up a manual instruction. When using your bank or building society’s beneficiary list, take care in selecting the correct HMRC entry for the payment you want to make.

If you’ve lost your Self Assessment reference number, also referred to as your unique taxpayer reference (UTR), you’ll find this on your payslip and on any correspondence sent to you by HMRC – including the ‘Notice to complete a Tax Return’ if you file online, or on your paper tax return.

The reference number is made up of 11 characters, for example: 1234567890K. You can make sure you have the correct reference by using HMRC’s Self assessment reference checker.

HMRC have made a blank payslip available online for all those taxpayers who pay by cheque and have lost their personal payslip.

The form can be completed and printed here.

HMRC have issued a press release today titled

There’s just one week left to send your 2010/11 tax return to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), if you want to avoid a penalty.

Obviously what HMRC say is correct but the important part of the message is hidden in the final paragraph and, to add insult to injury, states how wonderful HMRC are!

HMRC’s systems are able to cope with these large volumes of online returns

Don’t fall for this. HMRC’s systems are quite likely to fail and you may be unable to submit your return on time if you leave it until January 31. Worse still, it isn’t out of character for HMRC to use this press release to refuse any requests for a penalty to be cancelled, on the basis of  “we told you so”.

Don’t take the risk submit it sooner rather than later.

The deadline for applying for an Activation Code was yesterday and without one you can’t submit an online Tax Return.

Typically HMRC aren’t very helpful as what you should do next. Click on Do it online today on the HMRC homepage and you’re told

You must send your tax return online by midnight on Tuesday 31 January 2012.

Unfortunately you don’t have many options left and you may well have to pay the £100 penalty but these suggestions may help:

1. Apply for an Activation Code, you may be lucky and receive it before the deadline which will allow you to submit your return online.
2. Don’t whatever you do submit a paper return as you will incur a penalty of £100 automatically. The deadline for paper returns was 31 October 2011.
3. Ask a friendly accountant if they will submit your tax return on your behalf.  Strangely we (accountants) can submit a Tax Return for anyone as long as we have their Unique Tax Reference (UTR). They’ll charge you but commercial sense would suggest a fee of less than £100! And don’t forget that if you’re self employed you can claim tax relief on this, reducing the fee by about 30%. The £100 penalty doesn’t qualify for tax relief.

If you’re completing your own Self Assessment Tax Return and you haven’t submitted a Tax Return online before, you must first register to use HMRC Online Services.

You’ll need to do this today. This will allow HMRC time to send an Activation Code to you before you start using the service.

The HMRC website has the full details

31 January 2012:

Deadline for individual UK taxpayers to submit 2010/11 tax returns and pay up, on pain of penalties.

31 July 2015:

Deadline for Vodafone (profits:£10bn per year) to pay up on the cushy deal reached in 2010/11 to settle its multi-billion-pound offshore tax avoidance dispute.

As revealed in Private Eye No. 1305 13 January – 26 January 2012

Just before Christmas I was delighted to discover that HMRC are now accepting payments made using the Faster Payments Service.

Despite seeing this message on the screen when you file your VAT return

Please note: HMRC does not operate the Faster Payments Service (FPS), which is offered by some banks. Electronic payments will normally take three bank working days to reach the HMRC account.

the system does work!

The Tax Faculty of my institute have confirmed this. So don’t panic just do it.

Good news from HMRC is rare, so I am delighted to report that they are now accepting payments made using the Faster Payments Service.

Which means we can stop having to work out how many “banking days” there are before our VAT/tax is due. Instead we can just pay it on the due day (within reason) i.e. don’t leave it until one minute to midnight because that will not work.

The Faster Payments service enables banks to process internet and phone payments 24 hours a day, seven days a week, normally within a couple of hours. In the past, these payments have taken around three days to clear.

With only 47 days to go until the tax return deadline (see timer in sidebar), the 3CA flying pig has been launched to reflect the likelihood of all returns being submitted on time!

This is the pig at work.

This is the pig himself.