It is hard to escape the fact that there are only 57 days until Christmas. The shops are filling with festive goods and there always seems to be someone in the office keeping a daily / hourly countdown. Some people may start preparing for Christmas sooner than others but most people will have everything ready by the time the big day arrives albeit with a few last minute panics.
On the other hand people are less prepared when it comes to filing their Self Assessment tax return. Tax payers can complete their return for the previous tax year as early as 6 April but many like to leave this until the last possible moment. Last year more than 11 million customers completed a 2016 -17 Self Assessment tax return. 44.8% of all the tax returns were completed in January 2018 with an incredible 757,707 returns being submitted on the 31 January, the deadline day.
So along with the Christmas countdown it is worth remembering that there are only 94 days left to the Self Assessment deadline. Less exciting than Christmas of course but missing this deadline could cost more than a turkey dinner.
