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With the festive season behind us, many self-employed professionals will be turning their attention towards the looming deadline for self-assessment tax returns. This deadline, however, is also applicable to members of the rebuildingsociety.com who are earning money from their investments. The deadline for online tax returns for the 2013-2014 financial year is midnight on 31 January 2015. An automatic penalty of £100 will be incurred for late returns (even if you have no tax to pay) and continuously delayed returns could see penalties increase to as much as £1,600. If you are registered for self-assessment, you should have received a letter from HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) in April or May asking you to complete a tax return. If you are not registered it is your responsibility to inform HMRC to let them know you need to file a return. Unfortunately the deadline for filing a return by post has now passed (this deadline was 31 October). The remaining option is to file online, which has the advantage of automatic calculations and on-screen assistance should it be required. Furthermore, once completed you will receive immediate acknowledgement that HMRC have received your return. [accordion title="Do you have an online HMRC account?"] In order to send an online tax return you will need a HMRC online account. If you do not currently have an account, it is important to register as soon as possible. Online accounts take 7 days to set up as HMRC will post you an ‘activation code’ which is required to activate your account. This code must be used to activate the account within 28 days. To do this, you will need your national insurance number or postcode and your 10-digit unique taxpayer reference (UTR) number (you should receive this when you register for self-assessment). [/accordion] It may be advantageous to collect together all the financial documentation you will need including, for example, investment and savings statements, bank statements and details of all sources of income received during the tax year. Rebuildingsociety.com investors can easily retrieve a tax statement from their dashboard detailing their gains from investment for the given tax year. It should also be noted that 31 January is the deadline for paying any tax you owe from the 2013-2014 tax year (which ended 5 April 2014) and the first payment on account. If you are in any doubt about your tax position you should speak to your accountant or make an appointment to speak to an adviser at an HMRC enquiry centre. For more information please refer to the HMRC website or contact the HMRC self-assessment enquiry line on 0845 900 0444.