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Late tax return penalties

  • 2 min read
  • Last updated 7 Apr 2025

Every year almost 1 million people miss the tax filing deadline and have to pay tax return penalties.

There are three different kinds of tax return penalties:

Penalties for late filing

Total fines for filing a year late start at £1,600 but can technically be unlimited – it all depends on how large your original tax bill was:

How late you areFine (each gets added to the others!)
between 1 day and 3 months£100 flat fine
between 3 months and 6 months£10 each day
between 6 months and 12 months£300 flat or 5% of your tax bill (whichever is greater)
over 12 months£300 flat or 5% of your tax bill (whichever is greater)

Penalties for late payment

If you owe a tax bill and miss the payment deadline you will have to pay additional fines:

How late you areLate payment penalty
between 1 day and 30 days0
between 30 days and 6 months5% of your tax bill
between 6 months and 12 monthsanother 5%
over 12 monthsand another 5%

Interest for paying late

This is calculated yearly, and it is (how else) added to your other penalties as well.

As of April 7 2025, the Bank of England’s interest rate is 👉 4.5%.

What you can do to reduce your tax return penalties

  1. File it as quickly as possible to stop the fines from adding up
  2. If you have a reasonable excuse (a serious illness, etc.), then appeal the penalty – here’s how to do it
  3. If you can’t afford to pay, file for an extension with HMRC