Tougher penalties for late filers

The new HMRC penalty regime for late filing and late payment of self assessment income tax begins on Wednesday (6 April). As a result, a tax return filed six months late could attract a penalty of at least £1,300. In the past, being late to file your tax return would generate a fine but that fine would be waived is no tax was due. Not anymore!

The new sanctions are:

• Just one day late: an initial penalty of £100, even if there is no tax to pay or all tax owed has been paid.
• Three months late: an automatic daily penalty of £10 a day up to a maximum of £900.
• Six months late: further penalties charged of the greater of 5% of tax due or £300.
• Twelve months late: the penalty will be the greater of 5% of tax due or £300. In serious cases, a higher penalty of up to 100% of the tax due could be charged.

The penalties are on top of the interest HMRC will charge on outstanding amounts, including unpaid penalties, until payment is received.

Top 10 tips for better time management

Another top 10. It's not because I can only count to that! But I feel that summarizing and ranking issues on a given subject makes it easier for a blog reader to glance at and decide if it's worth going into the details.

Today's top 10 is on a subject that is only remotely connected to tax or accounts but that is so critical when you start up your own business that I thought it deserved some attention. It's about time management and because entrepreneurs are known to have way more daily work than a day can fit in,  it's critical that they do everything they can to optimize their day.

So here is the list:

1. Plan. If you fail to plan then it usually means that you plan to fail! You probably have a business plan. How often do you review it? Have you set long term goals, short term deliverables, how do you measure your progress against those? Everyone is different, every business has specificities but it is critical to setup goals and measure yourself against them, readjusting along the way. Your long-term objectives need to be split into short-term deliverables, all the way to the daily todo list. And you need to make sure that the objectives are specific and measurable, realistic and yet challenging.