Every year, following the 31 January self-assessment (SA) deadline, HMRC receives a number of imaginative and intriguing excuses for not completing tax returns on time. HMRC’s tongue in cheek press release of such excuses belied a serious message: the SA filing deadline for 2016/17 was last month on Wednesday 31 January.

“I couldn’t file my return on time as my wife has been seeing aliens and won’t let me enter the house” was just one bizarre excuse used for late filing. As well as these excuses, HMRC also receives some questionable items which taxpayers have tried to get a deduction for. In a recent blog post, HMRC have also set up the top five most popular self-assessment questions.