Thought Self Assessment had processed, now got £440 penalties - help!

lovesreading

Hi everyone, 

I have been self-assessed for some years now. 

I did not file my tax return on time, due to health issues (mine and in the family) so expected to pay £100 fine, which I was annoyed with myself about, but could not really dispute as I should have done it. 

I thought it had been done on 7/2/25, downloaded the online copy of the form. Did not receive a confirmation email but did not realise. 

Received a letter 13th June to say it had not been done, so went online and did it. Weirdly the form was still there, as if I hadn't confirmed it. Did it the same day. 

Received Notice of Penalty Assessment to say my fines were £440. on 23/6/25. OMG. I am a lone parent with chronic illness, dealing with child chronic health issues, on Universal Credit and part time hours. I can not afford this. It says pay within 30 days of date on letter which is 28/6/25, not even when I received it. 

Do you have any advice or experience that could help?

Thanks everyone

Dazed_and_C0nfused

lovesreading said:

Hi everyone, 

I have been self-assessed for some years now. 

I did not file my tax return on time, due to health issues (mine and in the family) so expected to pay £100 fine, which I was annoyed with myself about, but could not really dispute as I should have done it. 

I thought it had been done on 7/2/25, downloaded the online copy of the form. Did not receive a confirmation email but did not realise. 

Received a letter 13th June to say it had not been done, so went online and did it. Weirdly the form was still there, as if I hadn't confirmed it. Did it the same day. 

Received Notice of Penalty Assessment to say my fines were £440. on 23/6/25. OMG. I am a lone parent with chronic illness, dealing with child chronic health issues, on Universal Credit and part time hours. I can not afford this. It says pay within 30 days of date on letter which is 28/6/25, not even when I received it. 

Do you have any advice or experience that could help?

Thanks everyone

Is this your first late filing penalty in the years you have been in Self Assessment?

If so you can always appeal against it.  You may have a perfectly valid excuse.  If you don't appeal it won't just magically disappear.  But if you do appeal HMRC may be sympathetic, especially for a first offence.

sheslookinhot

A friend, in Scotland, advised this week he successfully overturned a fine, this month, for being 3 months late with his self assessment. He literally had no case to answer but he cited to HMRC communication issues.

lovesreading

Thank you yes it is I will appeal it 

LITRG

Hi lovesreading, I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Please find a link to our recent article on reasonable excuse with some tips on making an appeal: https://www.litrg.org.uk/news/late-tax-return-penalties-do-you-have-reasonable-excuse: 

lovesreading

Thank you so much LITRG amazingly I’d already found your article! It’s very useful, much appreciated. I wrote as much as I could, although you only have 1000 characters to state why …