Back
Let us sort your Self Assessment online. £119, all in. Learn more

Reasonable excuse

A reasonable excuse is an excuse that HMRC will accept if you want to appeal a fine for submitting or paying your tax return late.

HMRC only accepts severe reasons as reasonable excuses. Here are some examples:

  • you or someone in your family died around the tax deadline
  • you were in the hospital
  • the HMRC website didn’t work on that day
  • the post made a mistake or had a delay
  • or fire, flood, or some other disaster prevented you from completing your tax return on time.

You still have to send your tax return or pay your tax bill as soon as possible.

Otherwise, HMRC will not believe that you “did everything you could” to sort out your taxes on time.

Hey there! We really hope this article helped you. Tax matters can be a dreadful topic at times. We know. That's why we started TaxScouts.
A stress-free way to getting your taxes done.

Have a minute? See how it works

More guides & useful information

Let us sort your Self Assessment online. £119, all in.

That’s right. No matter how complicated it gets or why you need to do a return in the first place, it’ll cost £119 to get it done. That includes VAT, last-minute changes and all the support you may need.

Learn more

How it works

1. Answer a few simple questions

And we mean a few. After a couple of minutes of answering questions online we’ll have everything we need to start working on your tax return.

2. Then get paired with a tax accountant

That’s right, you’ll be matched with a real accountant who is best suited to prepare your return. Plus, they’re on hand for questions whenever you need.

3. We file your Self Assessment for you

Once you’ve signed off your return, your TaxScouts accountant will file your return online with HMRC. That’s it! We told you it was simple.

Taxes as they should be done

Let’s get yours sorted today.
Get started