PwC Offers Advice To Self-Assessed Taxpayers

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

04 September 2002

As the September 30 deadline for self-assessed taxpayers approaches in the UK, PricewaterhouseCoopers has warned that those who fail to submit their tax returns in time face a £60 per day late filing fine.

Speaking earlier this week, PwC tax partner, and former head of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, John Whiting urged taxpayers to: 'Dust off your Revenue form, dig out the relevant paperwork, and put aside some proper time in your diary. Don't be an ostrich - your tax return isn't going to go away!'

Mr Whiting also advised extreme caution when dealing with traditionally problematic areas, such as pensions contributions and benefits received, suggesting that taxpayers should view the return 'like an exam paper, and one that you have to achieve 100% in'.

It would appear that the majority of the country's MPs have not been putting in the revision time - according to a recent survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), 92% of politicians would like to see the self-assessment process simplified, and 73% actually needed to enlist help in order to correctly fill in the form.

However, CIOT President, Penny Hamilton believes that there need to be deeper changes made before the SA form can be simplified:

'There is only so much that can be done to simplify the return while the underlying tax system is so complicated,' she explained. 'We are hoping that these MPs and others will support us in encouraging the government to make not just the tax form but the whole tax system easier to understand.'

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