Received first 3 grants, will I get 4th? Filed 19/20 late

Ahmed.ST

Hi,
so my tax returns for have been up to date from 2015 until recently. I have received the first 3 grants based on my 18/19 tax returns. HOWEVER, I only filed my 19/20 yesterday (4th March). My account charges £400 to file tax returns and I’ve never found myself competent enough to do it myself so I’ve left it late as my current financial situation is tight as with everyone else. I am aware it’s late and will be fined.

as all my returns are in from 2015 until 2019, will me missing my 19/20 deadline make me ineligible? I read on HMRC that if they can’t calculate from your 19/20 returns then they will use 16/17, 17/18, 18/19 returns.

Could someone shed light on this? 

Thanks 

poppy12345

You will miss out because you needed to have submitted your 19/20 tax returns by 2nd March 2021. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-employment-income-support-scheme-grant-extension/self-employment-income-support-scheme-grant-extension

sheramber

They will look at earlier years if you are not eligible based on your 2019/20 return. But you have to have submitted that return by 2 March. 
 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-employment-income-support-scheme-grant-extension/self-employment-income-support-scheme-grant-extension                                                                                                                                           If you’re not eligible based on your 2019 to 2020 Self Assessment tax return, we will then look at the tax years 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020.

You must also have traded in both tax years:

• 2019 to 2020 and submitted your tax return by 2 March 2021
• 2020 to 2021

mattyprice4004

The way I read the rules is that you won't be able to claim. 
Golden rule - filing both self-assessment and VAT returns (if applicable) come before ANYTHING else (even if you have to live on beans for a month!). I learned this the hard way when I got hit by several fines. 

Hydra_2

I too have fallen foul of this rule about late tax returns, which is stingier than last year when people had an extended deadline until 23 April to file their returns. I believed I'd filed my return a few months ago and got a horrid shock when I logged in today to see my return coming up as 'unsubmitted'. I can't believe I wouldn't have submitted it correctly last year as I'm very familiar with the system it is a mystery to me. Apparently 1.8million hadn't filed returns by the January deadline and I can't help but feel this tighter approach with the Mar 2 deadline (as opposed to last year's Apr 23 deadline when arguably, covid problems were not as bad as they have been since) is designed to save the government some money. It is probably going to leave hundreds of thousands of self-employed without assistance again. In these extraordinary times, denying otherwise eligible people help on the basis of a late tax return seems particularly miserly. People are under unprecedented stress and extremely distracted, it seems those who were too distracted to file their return on time or like me, got bamboozled by the online system are going to be penalised unduly harshly for it.

SpiderLegs

Hydra_2 said:

I too have fallen foul of this rule about late tax returns, which is stingier than last year when people had an extended deadline until 23 April to file their returns. I believed I'd filed my return a few months ago and got a horrid shock when I logged in today to see my return coming up as 'unsubmitted'. I can't believe I wouldn't have submitted it correctly last year as I'm very familiar with the system it is a mystery to me. Apparently 1.8million hadn't filed returns by the January deadline and I can't help but feel this tighter approach with the Mar 2 deadline (as opposed to last year's Apr 23 deadline when arguably, covid problems were not as bad as they have been since) is designed to save the government some money. It is probably going to leave hundreds of thousands of self-employed without assistance again. In these extraordinary times, denying otherwise eligible people help on the basis of a late tax return seems particularly miserly. People are under unprecedented stress and extremely distracted, it seems those who were too distracted to file their return on time or like me, got bamboozled by the online system are going to be penalised unduly harshly for it.

If people can’t follow the rules and submit their tax returns on time then I couldn’t care less if they end with no assistance.

sheramber

As application are open in April 19/20 returns need to be processed before then. Hence the March deadline. 

Barny1979

Hydra_2 said:

People are under unprecedented stress and extremely distracted, it seems those who were too distracted to file their return on time or like me, got bamboozled by the online system are going to be penalised unduly harshly for it.

If you cared so much about the assistance, you would have bothered to ensure you submitted by the deadline.

Niv

I really do not understand why people complain about submission deadlines. These deadlines are not hard to meet. FY 19/20 ended in April 2020 and you have until January 2021 (well they also gave an extension until March!) to submit - what is hard about that? I think I have been slack if it takes me until July to submit.

sheramber

Whatever the deadline there will be someone who misses it and thinks they should be a special case.

zzyzx1221

sheramber said:

Whatever the deadline there will be someone who misses it and thinks they should be a special case.

Quite.

If I was the Chancellor I'd set the deadline as Jan 31st and be done with it.  Being generous and giving people some leeway just results in them expecting more leeway.