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Missed the date in your letter? Read this before you panic.

Last reviewed 1 September 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts

People sit on frightening post. It is the most human thing in the world, letters take days to arrive in the first place, and a 30-day window that started on the letter's printed date can be half gone before you opened the envelope. Here is where you actually stand.

First, one question that matters today

Is the letter a penalty, an assessment, or notice that a check or enquiry has started? Those can carry deadlines fixed by law, usually 30 days to appeal from the date of issue, and those do not stretch. If that is your letter, go here now. For the ordinary nudge letters this site covers, keep reading.

For nudge letters, the date was HMRC's, not the law's

The reply windows in one-to-many letters are administrative. They are set by the letter, extensions can be requested, and for the offshore letters that enclose a Certificate of Tax Position the Chartered Institute of Taxation records HMRC agreeing that responses by ordinary letter are accepted. A passed date does not change your legal position by itself.

What it does change is momentum. After the window, HMRC's usual sequence is a follow-up letter, then a fresh risk assessment, and possibly a compliance check. Once a check opens, anything you then disclose is treated as prompted, which raises the penalty range. In plain terms: late still beats silent, and today beats next week.

A Simple Assessment is its own case

The 60-day window to query a Simple Assessment figure is set by law (Taxes Management Act 1970, section 31AA(3)), but the same law lets HMRC allow a longer period. If your 60 days have passed, contact HMRC anyway and say what your records show; a clear query costs nothing. Check the figures first so you know exactly what to say.

What to do now

If you have nothing to declare

Respond now and say so. A short accurate letter does the job. Being late does not make a correct position wrong.

If something does need correcting

The disclosure routes do not shut because the nudge window passed. Read your letter type's page for the routes and what each involves, and consider advice before you commit to one.

If you want breathing room

Ask HMRC for time, in writing, with a sensible reason. Requests tend to be agreed when they are reasonable.

If your health or personal circumstances make this hard, tell HMRC. The letters themselves invite it, and extra support is a standing HMRC service.

Want someone to take this off your plate?

Some letters are worth handing to a specialist, and knowing when is half the value of a check. An adviser will treat what you say in confidence and will not judge how it got here. If we cannot point you anywhere useful, we will say so.

Where to get help

You can deal with HMRC directly, free, without any adviser. If money is tight: TaxAid (low incomes, older people included) and Citizens Advice help for free.

If Tax Letters ever introduces you to a firm, the firm may pay for the introduction. You never pay Tax Letters for it, and it never changes what these pages say. How Tax Letters is funded.

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