HMRC contacted Chartered Accountants Ireland to advise they are now issuing Self-Assessment Penalty Notices of £100 to those taxpayers that did not file online by 2 February.

Included within the penalty notices are also details of a telephone number which taxpayers can use to contact HMRC if they believe they should not be in Self-Assessment.

The penalty notices were sent out over a two week period to spread the volume of calls this is anticipated to generate. To ensure all taxpayers have at least 30 days to appeal, HMRC will accept without question appeals sent in by 31 March 2012.

An appeal form will be sent with each penalty notice and all appeals should be sent in writing.

HMRC advise that a record 90.4% of taxpayers filed on time for 2010-11, leaving fewer than 1 million left to file. And a record for online filing was also set – over 80%.