THE deadline is looming for self-assessment tax returns, warns the South Eastern Society of Chartered Accountants (SESCA).

Completed forms, including personal and partnership returns, as well as balancing payments for 1997/98 tax due must be with the Revenue by Sunday January 31.

Failure to meet the deadline willlead to an automatic penalty of £100 for each late return and interest on any tax due.

Charles Hemming, SESCA president, said: "Last year some taxpayers who were slightly late just managed to avoid a penalty, but that may not happen again.

"There will be another £100 fine for people who have not sent in their returns by the end of July."

And, he warned, the penalties did not end there.

"Outstanding tax has to be paid by the end of January or interest will be charged at 8.5 per cent. There will be a five per cent surcharge on any amount not paid by March 1 and a further five per cent on tax not paid within six months."

SESCA reckons that in East Sussex alone there are around 40,000 forms still due to be returned out of a total of 118,000 sent out.

"Many people think that if they do not owe any tax there is no need to return the form -this is not so," said David Fuller, partner at Grant Thornton.

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