These are the crucial tax deadlines you should know about

Here are the most important dates you need to remember to avoid missing your self assessment tax returns deadlines.

31 January 2020

Midnight on this day is the deadline for getting all your online tax returns to HMRC for the 2018-2019 tax year.

This is also the date when you will need to have paid your tax bill by, and self-employed people will need to make their first payment by this date for the 2019-2020 tax year.

6 April 2020

This is the first day of the new tax year, meaning that any new tax rates and regulations announced in the Chancellor’s budget (due in March) will be enforced.

It is also the date after which you can file your 2019-2020 tax return.

31 July 2020

The second payment for self-employed people (who use payment on account) will be due at midnight on this date.

5 October 2020

This is the deadline for registering for self assessment. If you want to submit a self assessment tax return for the 2019-2020 tax year, you need to have registered by 5 October.

31 October 2020

HMRC’s deadline for submitting paper tax returns is 31 October. If you miss the deadline, you can always submit your returns online instead (they aren’t due until 31 January).

Penalties for late returns

People could face a charge of £100 for paying their tax just a day after the deadline. If you waited three months after the deadline to pay, you could face a fine of up to £1,000.

If you paid your tax six months late, you could face an added £300 fine on top of the earlier fines - or five per cent of your tax bill (whichever is greater).

In the most serious cases, you could be fined 100 per cent of the tax you owe on top of your original tax bill.

How to submit your tax return

You can register with HMRC online if you've never submitted a tax return before. Once that is sorted, there are two different ways you can submit your tax return - on paper or online.

If you choose paper, you will have to fill out tax return forms by hand and post them to HMRC. If you choose online, you can submit returns on the HMRC website.

Online tax returns come with a series of advantages, including later deadlines and the ability to amend mistakes easily.

Tax calculator

Which? has developed a useful tax calculator that can help workers predict how much they need to put aside.

You can visit their website to put in your details to see how much you’ll need to pay.

This article originally appeared on inews