A survey carried out by 'Which?' of people who have already completed their Self Assessment Tax Return in advance of the 31st January 2019 deadline reveals the time taken to fill out and submit a tax return is increasing.
The 4,500 people surveyed took near to one hour longer than the people in the survey last year.
Around 60 percent of taxpayers normally wait until January to begin putting their finances together and get their tax return submitted. More than 11 million taxpayers need to submit their return by the end of January 2019, so that leaves around 6.5 million tax returns still outstanding, hence the mad January rush experienced by tax professionals and the annual near meltdown of HMRC's online systems around the deadline date.
Other people like to get things out of the way when they can like the 2,616 people who filled out their Tax Return a few days ago, on Christmas Day!
Even on Boxing Day, when most people are recovering from the food overload or out looking for shopping bargains as sales start, 8,465 tax returns were filed online.
Between 1pm and 2pm on Christmas Day, 230 taxpayers were busy filing their tax returns on HMRC's online submission service.
Between 1pm and 2pm on Boxing Day, 723 taxpayers were busy filing their tax returns on HMRC's online submission service.
Here is the full breakdown of submissions of the Christmas Period:
| Date | Time | Tax Return Submissions |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Dec | 00:00 - 08:00 | 204 |
| 25 Dec | 08:00 - 16:00 | 1,372 |
| 25 Dec | 16:00 - 23:59 | 1,040 |
| 26 Dec | 00:00 - 08:00 | 348 |
| 26 Dec | 08:00 - 16:00 | 4,492 |
| 26 Dec | 16:00 - 23:59 | 3,625 |
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