HMRC urgent warning over £300 fines for people earning less than £13,000

Workers earning less than £13,000 have been handed fines up to £300 by HMRC. More than 83,000 people earning too little to even owe any tax at all to HMRC have been fined for failing to file a tax return on time.

The Personal Allowance is £12,570, which means that any money you earn below that amount is not subject to Income Tax - as long as you have no other income. But HMRC could ask you to file a self-assessment tax return, if for example you are self-employed.

The deadline to fill in a paper return was October 31, while the online deadline is January 31, 2025. Even if you do not owe any tax, you can still be fined for failing to file a tax return which would prove this.

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According to figures from the Observer via Tax Policy Associates, more than 83,000 people who earned less than the £12,570 tax threshold were hit with a £100 penalty in 2021-22, Express reports.

Just 17,000 fines cancelled on appeal. HMRC also sent out 61,000 £300 fines for filing a year late.

Of those, half were to people earning less than £12,570. Just 5,000 people earning more than £100,000 a year were fined for the same offence.

An HMRC spokesperson said: "The government recognises that taxpayers who occasionally miss the filing deadline should not face financial penalties and reform of the system is under way. Our aim is to support all taxpayers, regardless of income, to get their tax right and avoid fines.

"The overwhelming majority of customers file on time."