Postal Strikes Tax Cheque

Buttercup

I sent my cheque at the weekend for my Tax bill, I'm really hoping it reaches its destination by 31st July, do you think they will make allowances for late deliveries with the postal strikes?

Innys

Um.... I dunno how to put this, but I doubt the HMRC will be that accomodating. Several reasons for this:

1) There have been two recent postal strikes so one could have reasonably anticipated there was to be further disruption;

2) The dates of the current disruption were announced in advance - up to a week I think;

3) You have had at least one month to pay the money in question. I got my SA statement at the beginning of July so advance warning of the money being due was given to you;

4) On the back of the SA statement it states the ways to pay. The first three are (from memory) Internet Banking, by telephone and at the Post Office. The statement states the HMRC recommends these three methods and then goes on to talk about postal cheques. Obviously, this implies by post isn't a "recommended method";

5) The SA statement makes it clear that the onus is on the tax payer to ensure that they send their money in time for it to be processed by 31 July.

Given all the above, the HMRC would be well within their rights, in my view, to say that you did not make enough effort to ensure they got their money by the end of tomorrow.

Sorry.

ctm_2

No, they won't. Blaming the postal service for any delay is not what HMRC will call a 'reasonable excuse'. Its something completely out of their control if there is a postal strike, which has been well publicised.

You should have sent the cheque earlier, or paid in one of the other ways that are avaliable to you.

SPANIEL36

then again if you put saturdays date on the cheque or sooner if it ws then, then you might be pleasantly surprised and find everything would be hunky dorey.

i sent a back dated cheque to pay for my partners speeding fine, they banked then cheque and nothing more was said.

Fingers Crossed for ya

ctm_2

HMRC 'bank' cheques on the day they receive them, not the date written on the cheque.