Late tax return filers 'won't receive penalty'

People who missed last month's deadline for tax returns because of faults with the online filing system will not be penalised, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has confirmed.

The standard punishment for failing to file a self assessment tax return on time is £100, although thousands of taxpayers were unable to submit their details on January 31st after HMRC's website collapsed under the volume of users.

HMRC had said that penalty notices would be issued automatically for all late filers and those who received them would need to appeal, but the tax body has now clarified that fine payments will not requested, Accountancy Age reports.

A statement from HMRC said that it would "remove any late filing penalty and treat the return as filed on time where the problems with the HMRC service were the cause of the delay and the return was filed within a reasonable period afterwards."

The tax organisation added: "We have now stopped the issue of penalty notices and the extension of the enquiry window for online returns filed using the HMRC software on 2nd and 3rd February 2008."

Adam Hart-Davis was recently dropped as the face of HMRC's promotional campaign for tax returns after he said that the system was too complicated.