Earlier this month we stressed the importance of dealing with any late self-assessment filing issue immediately. But we thought we’d share, kindly donated by HMRC, the best of the myriad excuses that the tax man receives for late payments and spurious claims.

Here at AIMS we’ve heard some excellent excuses but never one that quite as other worldly as this, ‘I couldn’t file my tax return as my wife has been seeing aliens and won’t let me enter the house’. We’re not here to debate the existence of aliens, we’re here to help you and, amongst other things, do your tax return.

Now we like sausages and chips, it’s a quality meal and brings back some fond childhood memories but claiming £4.50 as a business expense for a portion every day for 250 days would suggest that you’re not sure of what is an allowable expense.

There are more of these ridiculous excuses on the gov.uk website. If you are in a pickle, and haven’t yet done your tax return, or if you want some advice on what’s an allowable expense, we strongly suggest you get in touch with your local accountant. They’d be happy to help you out.