Tax Return Excuses

It’s that time of year again when, for our amusement, HM Revenue and Customs release their annual list of the 10 worst excuses taxpayers have given in the past year for filing a late tax return. The worst (best!) tax return excuses are …

• My pet dog ate my tax return…and all the reminders.
• I was up a mountain in Wales, and couldn’t find a post box or get an internet signal.
• I fell in with the wrong crowd.
• I’ve been travelling the world, trying to escape from a foreign intelligence agency.
• Barack Obama is in charge of my finances.
• I’ve been busy looking after a flock of escaped parrots and some fox cubs.
• A work colleague borrowed my tax return, to photocopy it, and didn’t give it back.
• I live in a camper van in a supermarket car park.
• My girlfriend’s pregnant.
• I was in Australia.

You won’t be surprised to hear that none of these tax return excuses led to a successful appeal!
You are allowed to claim there is a ‘reasonable excuse’ for filing late but, if you file your return after 31st January you will need to come up with more convincing tax return excuses than this to avoid being fined!