{"id":5801,"date":"2026-09-16T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodmanjones.com\/blog\/?p=5801"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:40:17","slug":"my-dog-ate-my-tax-return-and-other-stories-late-self-assessment-excuses-and-what-actually-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodmanjones.com\/blog\/my-dog-ate-my-tax-return-and-other-stories-late-self-assessment-excuses-and-what-actually-works\/","title":{"rendered":"My dog ate my tax return, and other stories: late Self-Assessment excuses, and what actually works"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What HMRC will treat as a reasonable excuse \u2014 and how private clients can stay out of the penalty regime.<\/h2>\n<p>After every January, a familiar ritual plays out. HMRC issues penalty notices. Taxpayers appeal. And, with unfailing regularity, some of those appeals arrive dressed up in stories that would not survive a first conversation with a 5-year-old, never mind a tribunal judge. Your mother-in-law is a witch, and put a curse on you.\u00a0 You&#8217;re too short to reach the post box.\u00a0 You had an argument with your wife and went to Italy for 5 years.\u00a0 And last but by no means least, your beloved dog ate your tax return.\u00a0 All of these are excuses which have actually been presented to &#8211; and unsurprisingly rejected by &#8211; HMRC.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC has published several of these lists over the years, and none of the comic examples succeeded in getting penalties cancelled. The law underneath them is less entertaining and much more expensive. A late Self-Assessment return still attracts an automatic \u00a3100 penalty. After three months, daily penalties of \u00a310 can run for 90 days. After six months, and again after twelve, a further charge of 5 per cent of the tax due or \u00a3300, whichever is greater, can follow. Late payment of tax due on 31 January attracts its own 5 per cent charges at 30 days, six months and twelve months, plus interest. Late partnership returns can land a late filing penalty on every partner.<\/p>\n<p>For high-net-worth and internationally mobile clients, the arithmetic is only part of the problem. A late return can delay a refund, trigger an enquiry, or simply draw HMRC&#8217;s attention to the taxpayer for the wrong reasons. The better question is not \u201cwhat story will HMRC find amusing?\u201d It is \u201cwhat does the statute actually require, and how do we avoid being in that conversation at all?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The excuses that made the newspapers<\/h2>\n<p>In January 2014 HMRC published a \u201ctop ten oddest excuses\u201d for late returns. Every one of them had been used on a penalty appeal. Every one of them failed. They remain the best-known catalogue of what not to write to the Revenue.<\/p>\n<style>.excuse-table th, .excuse-table td {padding: 4px;}.excuse-table tr:nth-child(even) {background-color: #f7f4ee;}<\/style>\n<table class=\"excuse-table w-100\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>The excuse offered<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Who offered it<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>My pet goldfish died<\/td>\n<td>Self-employed builder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>I had a run-in with a cow<\/td>\n<td>Midlands farmer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>After seeing a volcanic eruption on the news, I could not concentrate on anything else<\/td>\n<td>London woman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>My wife will not give me my mail<\/td>\n<td>Self-employed trader<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>My husband told me the deadline was 31 March, and I believed him<\/td>\n<td>Leicester hairdresser<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>I have been far too busy touring the country with my one-man play<\/td>\n<td>Coventry writer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>My bad back means I cannot go upstairs. That is where my tax return is<\/td>\n<td>Working taxi driver<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>I have been cruising round the world in my yacht, and only picking up post when I am on dry land<\/td>\n<td>South East man<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Our business does not really do anything<\/td>\n<td>Kent financial services firm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>I have been too busy submitting my clients\u2019 tax returns<\/td>\n<td>London accountant<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Later, HMRC lists added further entries in the same spirit: the tax return was on a yacht that caught fire; a wasp in the car caused an accident that destroyed the papers; a child scribbled over the form; a colleague borrowed it to photocopy and lost it. Ruth Owen, then HMRC\u2019s Director General of Personal Tax, put the official position with some dryness: there will always be unforeseen events that stop a return being filed on time. A goldfish passing away is not one of them.<\/p>\n<p>These stories are useful because they illustrate the test from the wrong side. An excuse can be truthful and still fail. HMRC is not asking whether something inconvenient happened. It is asking whether a reasonable person, who intended to meet the obligation, would have been stopped by that event &#8211; and whether the taxpayer then put the failure right without delay.<\/p>\n<h2>What the law actually means by \u201creasonable excuse\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>The phrase is not defined in the Taxes Management Act. Case law and HMRC\u2019s own manuals treat it as something that stops a person meeting a tax obligation despite having taken reasonable care to meet it. The standard is personal. What is reasonable for an unrepresented first-year trader is not automatically reasonable for a director with an accountant, a family office and several years of filing history.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC\u2019s published examples of circumstances that may amount to a reasonable excuse include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The death of a partner or close relative shortly before the filing or payment deadline.<\/li>\n<li>An unexpected stay in hospital that prevented the taxpayer from dealing with their tax affairs.<\/li>\n<li>A serious or life-threatening illness.<\/li>\n<li>Computer or software failure immediately before or during preparation of an online return.<\/li>\n<li>A genuine failure of HMRC\u2019s own online services, evidenced by the error message and the date.<\/li>\n<li>Fire, flood or theft that destroyed records that could not be replaced in time.<\/li>\n<li>Unpredictable postal disruption &#8211; for example industrial action, not ordinary second-class delay.<\/li>\n<li>Delay caused by a disability or mental illness, supported by evidence.<\/li>\n<li>In limited cases, a genuine misunderstanding of a legal obligation, or reliance on another person who then failed to file &#8211; though both of these are examined closely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two further conditions almost always apply. The excuse must have existed at the time of the failure. And the taxpayer must remedy the failure as soon as they reasonably can. An appeal that arrives months later, with the return still unfiled, is usually dead on arrival.<\/p>\n<h2>The everyday excuses that fail<\/h2>\n<p>Most penalty appeals do not involve mischievous dogs. They involve ordinary explanations that feel fair to the person offering them and look thin once they are written down. HMRC\u2019s manuals and the GOV.UK \u201creasonable excuses\u201d page are explicit about several of these.<\/p>\n<p>Pressure of work is not enough. The filing window is long. A return that is \u201ctoo difficult\u201d should have prompted an earlier call to HMRC or an adviser, not a late appeal. Not receiving a reminder is irrelevant: the due date is published and appears on the notice to file. Finding the online system awkward is not an excuse. A bounced payment because there was not enough money in the account is not an excuse for late payment. Shortage of funds generally is not an excuse at all; the expectation is that money to pay tax has been set aside.<\/p>\n<p>Reliance on an agent is the point on which many private clients are most surprised. Instructing an accountant does not transfer the legal obligation. If the agent files late, the penalty still attaches to the taxpayer unless the facts show that the taxpayer took reasonable care and the failure was genuinely outside their control.<\/p>\n<p>Missing records are treated in the same spirit. Fire, flood, theft or a genuine system failure can be accepted if the information could not be replaced in time. \u201cI have not yet received my P60 \/ K-1 \/ overseas statement\u201d is not, on its own, a reason to file nothing. Estimates or provisional figures, with an explanation, can and should go in. The return can later be amended.<\/p>\n<p>Ignorance of the deadline is almost never enough for someone who has been in Self Assessment before. First-year filers sometimes succeed where they can show they did not know they needed to register &#8211; but even then HMRC looks at whether they should have asked. Registering after 5 October can bring a separate \u201cfailure to notify\u201d penalty.<\/p>\n<h2>How an appeal is actually won<\/h2>\n<p>Penalties for late filing are generated automatically. They do not wait for a human being to decide that you deserve one. If you believe you have a reasonable excuse you must appeal, usually within 30 days of the penalty notice. The return or the payment must be put right first, or immediately alongside the appeal. HMRC will then look at the facts, the taxpayer\u2019s attributes, and whether the failure was remedied without unreasonable delay.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence matters more than tone. Hospital letters, death certificates, police crime numbers, screenshots of HMRC service errors, proof that an activation PIN was requested before the deadline &#8211; these are the documents that change outcomes. A narrative without dates rarely does.<\/p>\n<p>Even where there is no reasonable excuse, HMRC has a separate discretion to reduce a penalty for \u201cspecial circumstances\u201d. That discretion is narrow. It is not a second chance for the same story. Tribunals can also reduce penalties, but they start from the same statutory test.<\/p>\n<h2>A note on Making Tax Digital<\/h2>\n<p>From April 2026, taxpayers mandated into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax move onto a points-based late-submission regime for quarterly updates and the year-end return. There is a grace period during 2026\/27 when penalty points will not apply.\u00a0 Following that, four points produce a \u00a3200 penalty, and further missed deadlines produce further \u00a3200 charges. The current Self Assessment late-filing penalty ladder still applies to earlier years \u2014 so a 2025\u201326 return due on 31 January 2027 is still in the \u00a3100 \/ daily \/ 5 per cent world. Clients who are newly in MTD should not assume the old January rhythm is the only date that now matters.<\/p>\n<h2>How Goodman Jones can help<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the people who end up writing to HMRC about a dog did not set out to be late. They ran out of time because the return was more complicated than they expected, because information arrived late, or because nobody managed the calendar. That is a process problem, and it is one we solve.<\/p>\n<p>Our Self-Assessment service is built to include provisions for clients whose affairs are not simple. We coordinate the information, complete the return, and act as the named agent with HMRC. We deal with partners in professional firms and the partnership return itself; directors and shareholders of private companies; buy-to-let and property businesses; and individuals with overseas income, residence questions or historic remittance-basis and foreign income and gains issues. We do not only type numbers into boxes. We think about the information we&#8217;re provided with and ask the necessary questions to get to an accurate filing position.<\/p>\n<p>Where a a deadline is looming imminently and details can&#8217;t be supplied on time, we make a judgement call in conjunction with our clients.\u00a0 We can file based on the information available, use estimates or provisional figures where possible, and then amend the return once the outstanding statements arrive. Alternatively, we may not have sufficient information to file with a reasonable degree of accuracy, and it may be better to wait and file late (accepting the \u00a3100 penalty) once the final figures are available. Where a penalty has already been issued, we can assess whether a successful appeal is realistic, assemble the evidence, and handle the appeal. We will say so if the facts will not support one. An unmeritorious appeal wastes time and does not improve the relationship with HMRC.<\/p>\n<p>For clients who want a buffer against the cost of an HMRC enquiry, professional fee protection can cover our time if an enquiry from HMRC follows the return.<\/p>\n<h2>A practical checklist before 31 January<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Confirm whether you are still required to file. If you are not, tell HMRC. An outstanding notice to file will still generate penalties.<\/li>\n<li>Register by 5 October if you are new to Self-Assessment for the UK tax year ended on the immediately preceding 5 April.<\/li>\n<li>Do not wait for every last statement in every case. It can be better to file on time with estimates where needed, then amend. However, each case needs to be considered individually to determine whether this is the right approach; please talk to your adviser to reach a decision.<\/li>\n<li>If HMRC\u2019s website fails, keep the error message and the date. File as soon as the service is restored.<\/li>\n<li>If you are ill, bereaved or otherwise genuinely unable to comply, tell your adviser immediately and keep evidence. File as soon as you reasonably can.<\/li>\n<li>Do not assume your accountant has filed until you have confirmation. The obligation remains yours.<\/li>\n<li>Pay on time even if the return is still being finished. Late filing and late payment are separate regimes. We prepare estimates for clients as needed so that they can make timely payments, minimise interest on late paid tax, and mitigate the risk of penalties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The unfashionable conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>HMRC\u2019s odd-excuse lists are published because they work as a warning. They also reveal a more useful truth. The Revenue will listen when something serious, sudden and outside your control stopped a careful person from complying &#8211; when that person then put it right as soon as they can. It will not listen to the hope that a thin story will be treated as wit.<\/p>\n<p>It is always better to chase information early and engage with an adviser without delay if your situation is becoming complicated or you are running up against a deadline and aren&#8217;t sure what to do.\u00a0 We are here to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What HMRC will treat as a reasonable excuse \u2014 and how private clients can stay out of the penalty regime. After every January, a familiar ritual plays out. HMRC issues penalty notices. Taxpayers appeal. And, with unfailing regularity, some of those appeals arrive dressed up in stories that would not survive a first conversation with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":5809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tax"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My dog ate my tax return, and other stories: late Self-Assessment excuses, and what actually works<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodmanjones.com\/blog\/my-dog-ate-my-tax-return-and-other-stories-late-self-assessment-excuses-and-what-actually-works\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My dog ate my tax return, and other stories: late Self-Assessment excuses, and what actually works\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What HMRC will treat as a reasonable excuse \u2014 and how private clients can stay out of the penalty regime. 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