In thinking the majority of people don't do their tax reurns till January?

[Mapley]

Or is it just me and everyone I know who turns procrastination into an artform?

ie:

jan 4th- 5 mins spent looking for HMRC login, followed by a spate of baking for the freezer. Very wise to stock up on scones for the year ahead obviously

jan 7th

A twenty minute flourish in my invoices folder followed by two hour mumsnet session

jan 9th

an explicable and powerful urge to urgently reorganise the bathroom storage and defrost the freezer overtakes me.

Jan 12th

A breif but intense session of writing dates on envelopes and stapling reciepts together neccessitates a complete dipilitation, eyebrow tidy and pedicure.

Etc!

Is it just me? Bet you freaks all do it by the first week in April and pay the bill immediately from your tax savings accounts? Gits.

Etc

This is my first year as a sole trader so I'll be joining y'all next year on 31 Jan. Although I am hoping I won't wait that long, knowing me I will!

Ah, we'll all hold hands going up to midnight, Tee!

ha, after years of filing on the very last day at the 11th hour paying lots of fines, i made it my number one priority to sort this out ASAP at the end of the tax year. actual filing date? 27 December! apart from giving birth, it's been the biggest achievement of my year.

I normally have all my figures done by July so that I can give the Tax Credits people the actual figures instead of guesstimates.

Then I do the tax returns a few weeks later after psyching myself up for it.

And every year, it takes me around 20 mins and I wonder what the fuss was about!!

never done it as I earn very low wages

I was very early by my standards this year. 30th Jan. And that was only because it was Sunday and I knew I'd never do it after work on Monday.

A couple of years ago I was very good submitted my return in July. It was acknowledged and I got a small rebate. Then at the end of the year they tried to fine me £100 for not having done my tax return!

I ended up out of pocket from phonecalls and postage costs as I had to send a copy of my return by recorded delivery in order to sort it out.

Did mine at abou 11pm on the 31st.No wonder their server was a bit slow!

ooh melpomeme, i had a similar experience last year. filed on 31/1, and felt pretty chuffed the return was in on time. even got a small refund, which felt a lot like a lottery win.

then started getting penalty notices for not filing on time , which really pissed me off as i had actually managed it for once!

turned out they had created a new tax payer id number for me, even though they had accepted the return under my proper number. not sure how they managed that, useless bastards, and it took for ever to sort out.

it was nice to have the high moral ground with HMRC for a change though.