{"id":52148,"date":"2015-01-05T10:28:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T10:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=383552c9fa29089646b0e68c5f24ee52"},"modified":"2015-01-05T10:28:01","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T10:28:01","slug":"press-release-taxman-reveals-top-10-terrible-tax-excuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=52148","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Taxman reveals top 10 terrible tax excuses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Many of the excuses claim it was someone else\u2019s fault \u2013 pets, girlfriends, work colleagues and even the President of the United States are named and blamed for taxpayers\u2019 tardiness.<\/p>\n<p>The excuses were all used in unsuccessful appeals against <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> penalties for late filing and payment. Here\u2019s the full list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>My pet dog ate my tax return\u2026and all the reminders.<\/li>\n<li>I was up a mountain in Wales, and couldn\u2019t find a postbox or get an internet signal.<\/li>\n<li>I fell in with the wrong crowd.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve been travelling the world, trying to escape from a foreign intelligence agency.<\/li>\n<li>Barack Obama is in charge of my finances.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve been busy looking after a flock of escaped parrots and some fox cubs.<\/li>\n<li>A work colleague borrowed my tax return, to photocopy it, and didn\u2019t give it back.<\/li>\n<li>I live in a camper van in a supermarket car park.<\/li>\n<li>My girlfriend\u2019s pregnant.<\/li>\n<li>I was in Australia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> Director General of Personal Tax, Ruth Owen, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>People can have a genuine excuse for missing a tax deadline, but owning a pet with a taste for <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> envelopes isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">You need to file your 2013\/14 tax return online, and pay what you owe, by 31 January. But it\u2019s best to do it now, to allow plenty of time to sort out any issues with your return. That way, you\u2019ll avoid the busy period for our phone lines as the deadline approaches.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>All outstanding 2013\/14 tax returns must now be submitted online, as the 31 October paper-filing deadline has passed. To send an online tax return, you must be registered for <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> Online Services. This involves <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> sending you an Activation Code in the post, and you need to allow 10 days for it to arrive.<\/p>\n<p>Simple, straightforward advice on Self Assessment can be found at <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr>\u2019s <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/HMRC-Self-Assessment\/889532404414691\">new Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Help and advice on filing your return \u2013 including how to register for online filing \u2013 is also available from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/self-assessment-tax-returns\">the GOV.UK website<\/a> or the Self Assessment helpline on 0300 200 3310 (open 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am to 4pm on Saturday).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten of the most terrible excuses for missing the 31 January tax return deadline have been revealed today by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}