SA filing deadline for partnership returns

File on paper by 31 October or else use commercial software

In our newswire last week we explained what will happen if an income tax self assessment tax return needs to be submitted on paper after the 31 October deadline.

We explained how the £100 late filing penalty could apply and the procedure for asking for a reasonable excuse claim to be accepted by HMRC. HMRC will accept an appeal (under ss 93, 93(A) or 118(2), TMA 1970) and remove the penalty for the late submission of a paper return where a reasonable excuse exists.

The penalty can in any case be capped to the amount of tax outstanding at 31 January for a late filed personal tax return. This also applied to trust and estate returns.

However, remember that there is no similar capping provision for partnership tax returns submitted late. If these have not been filed before 31 October (and there is no reasonable excuse), the only option is to e-file using third party software, or else submit the paper return and face a late filing penalty of £100 for each partner in the partnership. Note that HMRC does not provide free filing software for partnership or trust returns.

A list of software currently available together with a list of third party providers can be found on the HMRC website. This is also discussed in our TAXline Tax Practice No 20.

20 October 2008