Anyone filing a Self-Assessment tax return the traditional way on a paper form must do so by 31st October. If you miss the deadline it will be costly, as paper returns filed after this date could mean a £100 penalty.

An alternative to paper-filing is to file your return online instead. It’s simple to do – three quarters of Self Assessment filers already do it – and you get three months longer to file. More than 9m Self Assessment returns are sent out by HMRC every year, but last year 6.4m filied their returns online.

As well as postponing the deadline to 31st January, online filing has other advantages too: your tax is calculated automatically; you get an immediate online acknowledgement once you’ve filed; and it’s processed faster, so any money you’re owed is repaid more quickly.

Registering for online filing is simple – visit the HMRC website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/online and click “Register (new users)”.

Help and advice is available from the HMRC website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa or from the Self Assessment helpline on 0845 9000 444.