Fifth of small businesses ‘will not get tax return in on time’

23/01/08 16:49

Almost 20% of small business owners have said that they do not expect to get their tax returns in on time, according to new research.

The survey, conducted by KashFlow, an online accounting software company, surveyed almost 750 small business owners and found that fines issued by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) could top £200m this year as a result.

According to the survey, the amount of businesses expected to fail to get their their tax returns in before the deadline will be up by 14% on last year.

“It is really worrying that there is still a huge amount of people out there who aren’t keeping on top of their bookkeeping so as to get information over to their accountant in time,” said Duane Jackson, managing director of KashFlow.

“I think that 9% of business owners who said they totally forgot about the return must have been hiding for the past few months as no matter where you turn, from radio, television and press adverts, Adam Hart Davies has been imploring people to get them in on time,” he added.

Almost half (48%) of small business owners who said they would not able to get their tax returns in by the deadline, said this was because they hadn’t sent information to their accountant on time, while 32% said the forms were too confusing.

A further 13% said that they were too busy to complete the forms, and 9% said they had missed the HMRC advertising campaigns and simply forgotten.

The deadline for tax returns is 31st January.