Updated statistics released near the very end of last year showed an substantial uptick in the number of people using the Christmas break to file their self assessment - with 40,000 tax returns filed over the three day holiday period.
Even New Year's Eve and New Year's Day weren't safe from organised individuals who used the last moments of 2024 to get their taxes in order - with around 25,000 sent through HMRC's online systems on the Eve and around 38,000 send on the Day. New Year's Day actually saw a 14,000 submission increase over last year! - with mid-day being the busiest period.
Around 300 people were hitting the submit button as the final bells rang for 2024.
Today HMRC states that though people were using some downtime over Christmas and New Year's to get tax returns in early, there are still 5.4 million outstanding - but a welcome 300,000 reduction on the number outstanding the same time last year.
The tax return in question is for income detailed the period between April 2023 and April 2024 - with a paper submission deadline of 31st October 2024 and online submission deadline of 31st January 2025. A quick reminder that you can use our tax return 2024 calculator to get a quick estimate of how much tax you could owe.
It's important to get everything filed well before the deadline and beat the rush - not least to avoid the automatic £100 penalty on February 1st and then the subsequent daily penalties whilst the tax return remains outstanding.
Busy periods toward the end of the month can give rise to IT technical issues and cause downtime. Other factors such as requiring papers and figures to work from and you may need to dig these up. Using a tax return service or an accountant at this stage would also be during their busiest period, which would bring other factors to consider.