Income Tax Self Assessment registration for the self-employed and landlords

The call for evidence explores the benefits and potential problem areas of the current notification of a tax liability and income tax Self Assessment (ITSA) registration processes and considers two possible options for change:

• Option 1 - reducing the deadline for notifying liability after the tax year end
• Option 2 - introducing a new obligation to report the start of new self-employment or property income

Our response explains that while we would not be against moving the deadline for notifying liability to tax to a date earlier than 5 October, but after the end of the tax year, at present we do not think there is sufficient evidence to support such a change. We set out our reasons for why we think it is preferable to retain a notification deadline after the end of the tax year.

We also recommend that HMRC prioritise addressing various pinch-points in the existing system such as confusion in notifying liability to tax and registering for ITSA, the different methods in registration/deregistration and people not always recognising that their activities may trigger an obligation to notify liability to tax.

The call for evidence can be found here.

The LITRG response can be found here