HMRC has revealed a record number of people managing to beat the self assessment deadline clock of midnight January 31st.
12.1 million people were expected to file before the online filing deadline, and 11 million did get their taxes filed before the midnight bell rung. Some even pushed it to the very end with reports of around 33,000 tax returns flying through the gates between 11pm and midnight on January 31st.
Only 3 percent of taxpayers opted to send tax returns the old fashioned way, the paper postal return. These had a much earlier filing deadline of October 31st last year and 335,000 tax returns were received in this manner.
It's a bit of a windfall for HMRC as 1.1 million £100 late penalties were automatically applied on February 1st, equivalent to an estimated £110 million.
The penalty is applied whether any tax would be due or not - it is applied for missing the filing deadline only.
Additional penalties are however charged to the taxpayer of varying incremental severity over the next months - ranging from £10 per day to 5 percent surcharges on the tax amount due.
Interest is also chargeable to the taxpayers tax account until outstanding taxes are settled.