How did you spend Christmas Day?

How did you spend Christmas Day?

In total, 37,435 people filed their personal tax return between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, HMRC have advised. This suggests that for some, festive filing is becoming as much a tradition as watching the King’s Speech. However, the numbers were down on the previous year when HMRC received 40,072 returns over the same three days.

There were of course some hard-core filers, with 359 returns submitted to HMRC between 1pm and 1.59pm on 25 December, while over 3,159 took the time out from festive preparation to file between 11am and 11.59 on Christmas Eve itself.

HMRC is now reminding self-assessment taxpayers to get on with one of their least favourite jobs of the year, with the filing deadline now getting closer by the day to the deadline of 31 January.

HMRC’s chief customer officer, said: ‘Millions of customers have already completed their tax returns and can start 2026 with one less thing to worry about.’

‘For anyone yet to file, don’t leave it until the last minute. Filing now means you know exactly what you owe and have time to arrange payment. Search ‘Self Assessment’ on gov.uk to get started.’

This will be the final year of filing self assessment tax returns for sole traders and landlords with a turnover above £50,000 as they will have to do quarterly reporting to HMRC under the new Making Tax Digital rules, which come into effect from 6 April 2026. 

If you need help with Making Tax Digital, please get in touch with us here at Kennedys Accounting https://kennedysaccounting.uk/making-tax-digital-and-self-assessments-kennedys-accounting-are-ready-to-help-insights/