A staggering 1½ million people in the UK have been fined for filing their tax returns late, the fines are reported to have tallied up to £150 million for HM Revenue & Customs.
Of the 6.9 million people who filed their self-assessment tax returns online, more than 25% failed to do so before the deadline date of 31st January, incurring themselves a £100 fine. A report was released detailing the figures following a Freedom of Information request. 
The number of fines has increased by 8% since last year and a huge increase of 56% since 2006, when there were just 962,000 fines. Whilst the HMRC hasn’t revealed the exact figures involved, it is thought that they have netted up to £150 million in fines.
People who are aiming to have their tax returns filed by the October 31st deadline have an even more daunting fine if they file late, facing fines of up to £1500 after the HMRC increased their fining policy in April.
The Freedom of Information request was lodged by the law firm McGrigors, and tax partner Jason Collins was quoted as saying: “Not only are HMRC issuing fines at an increasingly worrying rate but they have now won powers to impose dramatically increased fines.
“This wouldn’t be such a concern if HMRC had not developed a reputation for unfairly issuing fines and stubbornly refusing to cancel them, even when the taxpayer complains.”
Under the HMRC’s own rules fines are waivered if people have a ‘reasonable excuse’ for not filing in their return by the deadline, although the legislation is unclear as to what the definition of a reasonable excuse is.
McGrigors states that the HMRC is adopting a ‘draconian’ approach. In response a HMRC spokesperson has said: “We want tax returns back, not penalties, so nobody will receive a penalty where they file a tax return by the deadline or have a reasonable excuse for failing to do so.”
The latest targets for the HMRC are teachers who earn extra cash on the side by taking on private students. Ebay traders and gas fitters have been recent targets for the taxman.
The Government is currently trying to retrieve £7 billion of revenue that has been lost through fraud and tax evasion by 2015.
