HMRC lifts fine threat for late tax filers

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs will not fine anyone who got their tax filed over the weekend - even though they missed the official, extended deadline.

A spokesman for HMRC told the Reg: "Anyone who was unable to file online because of some isolated problems Thursday and Friday will not be fined if they filed over the weekend."

Technical problems brought the HMRC self-assessment website to its knees on Thursday and Friday as the deadline for filing returns loomed. HMRC agreed to extend the deadline from Thursday until midnight on Friday.

But continued problems on Friday meant the Revenue decided to extend the deadline once more. Normally there is a £100 fine for filing your tax return late.

Despite the problems some 204,000 people did manage to get their returns in on Thursday, and 42,696 people filed on Friday.

Saturday saw 5,851 people filing online and another 1,337 got the site to work successfully on Sunday.

Paper tax returns are getting the same generous treatment - if the envelope got to your tax office by this morning (Monday) you should be OK.

There is no comment from HMRC about what caused the crash on Thursday. ®