In another statistic laden publication, HMRC have announced that women, those in the agriculture industry and taxpayers in Northern Ireland are more likely to send in their tax return on time.

For every 10,000 tax returns received last year by HMRC from men, 394 were after the relevant deadline – 31 October for paper submissions and 31 January for online returns. This compares to 358 late returns for every 10,000 received from women.

As well as a gender gap, HMRC’s analysis showed a significant difference in filing behaviour between age ranges. People aged 18 to 20 were the worst offenders, with those aged 65 or over the most punctual.

Across the United Kingdom, taxpayers in Northern Ireland were the most punctual, followed by those in England and Scotland. The figure for the United Kingdom as a whole was 372 late filers per 10,000.

In terms of differences between workers in different industries, those in the agriculture, fishing and forestry industry are the star performers. Surprisingly, lawyers and accountants came second, with health and social workers in third place. Workers in the information and communication industries fared the worst, with administrative and support services not far behind and the construction industry the next worst performing sector.