Filing proper returns doesn’t need to be a taxing job

THOUSANDS of people are penalised by the Revenue each year for failure to comply with tax return requirements but we would “guestimate” that at least 20% of these people are unaware of their tax obligations and that many of the penalties incurred are very much avoidable.

Many people, if they are in PAYE employment, believe the October 31 deadline does not apply to them. However, this is not always the case. There are a variety of people, from those owning buy-to-let properties to those who have a foreign pension or those who have recently sold shares, who need to file a tax return to be tax compliant.

For this reason, we have put together a checklist of the most common situations we have come across where people have to file a tax return outside of self-employed individuals.