HMRC daily penalties are £10 for each day a Self Assessment return is still outstanding more than three months after the deadline. For a return due on 31 January they start on 1 May and stop after 90 days, at £900. They come on their own notice with its own 30 day appeal window, so you can appeal them even if you paid the £100 penalty or missed its deadline. The excuse has to cover the whole time you were late, up to the day you filed.
You appeal daily penalties the same way as any other Self Assessment penalty, online or on form SA370, and our guide to HMRC penalty appeals covers the routes and deadlines. This page covers what is different about the daily charges. If you need someone to check the notices and prepare the evidence, see our HMRC penalty appeal service.
The 30-day clock starts from the daily penalty notice, not the original deadline
Daily penalties arrive in their own notice, separate from the £100 fixed penalty. That notice has its own date and its own 30-day appeal window. If you have already missed the appeal window for the £100 fine, you can still appeal the daily charges separately.
How HMRC Daily Penalties Actually Work
Daily penalties begin the moment your Self Assessment return is three months past the original 31 January deadline. From 1 May, every day the return remains unfiled adds £10 to the running total. The charges accumulate silently in HMRC's system. You will not receive a daily letter. You will get one notice, usually after the daily charges have run for some time, showing the full accumulated figure.
The cap is £900, hit at 90 days of daily charges. After that come the 6 and 12 month penalties, each 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater, according to HMRC's penalty table. Daily penalties are the one late filing charge set purely by time, with no link to the size of your tax bill, so a return showing no tax at all can still pick up the full £900.
Filing the return stops the daily clock immediately
Daily charges accrue only while the return is outstanding. The moment HMRC receives your return, even with estimated figures, the daily clock stops. Filing on day 30 means £300 in daily charges. Filing on day 90 means £900. Filing on day 100 still means £900 because the charge had already capped at day 90.
What a Daily Penalty Appeal Has to Cover
A reasonable excuse for the £100 fixed penalty has to explain the 31 January deadline. An excuse for the daily penalties has to explain why the return was still not filed from 1 May onwards, and that you filed without unreasonable delay once the problem ended. The two can succeed or fail separately:
- 1A long illness or caring responsibility that runs from January into May covers both penalties, provided the evidence covers the whole period.
- 2An excuse that ended in March may cancel the £100 but not the daily charges, because the return could have gone in during April.
- 3A problem that started after 31 January cannot excuse the £100, but it can excuse the daily charges for the weeks it lasted.
Daily penalties also need a notice from HMRC saying when they start. In Donaldson v HMRC the Court of Appeal held in 2016 that the warning on the filing reminder and the £100 penalty notice was enough, so this point rarely wins on its own. It is still worth checking that you received those letters at the right address.
The Daily Penalty Appeal, Step by Step
Step 1: File the Return First
HMRC says it may not be able to progress a late filing appeal until the return is in, and filing is the only thing that stops the daily clock. If some figures are not final, file on your best figures and correct them afterwards.
Step 2: Identify the Daily Penalty Notice Date
The notice is a separate letter from the £100 fixed penalty notice. It will typically be headed something like "Daily Late Filing Penalties." The date in the top right is the start of your 30-day appeal window for these specific charges.
Step 3: Appeal Online or on SA370 With Daily-Penalty Framing
Use HMRC's online appeal service or the paper SA370 form. In the grounds section, the framing differs from a £100 appeal. Cover the entire period from the original deadline through the date you actually filed, not just the lead-up to 31 January. The caseworker is looking at why filing was prevented across the whole window, not just at one moment.
Step 4: Evidence the Sustained Period
For an illness-based appeal, GP and hospital records covering the full duration. For a bereavement, evidence of estate administration timelines that explains the sustained absence from your own affairs. For a caring scenario, evidence that the care was sustained through the relevant months.
Step 5: Address the "Why Not File Earlier" Question Explicitly
A common rejection ground for daily-penalty appeals is "you could have filed on estimates at any point during the daily period." Pre-empt this in the appeal itself. Explain why estimated filing was not viable for you during the period: incapacity to handle administrative work, lack of access to even basic records, or other documented reasons.
A Worked Daily-Penalty Appeal
A composite scenario: a sole trader received the £100 fixed penalty in February 2026 and did not appeal it. He was diagnosed with a serious cardiovascular condition on 12 February. Surgery followed in March. Recovery and rehabilitation absorbed April and most of May. He filed the return on 24 May after his physiotherapist signed him off as ready to resume office work.
By the time the daily penalty notice arrived in late June, the £100 appeal window was long gone. But the daily charges had only run for around 24 days (1 May to 24 May), totalling £240, and the daily-penalty notice itself was within 30 days of submission. He submitted an SA370 covering the period 12 February to 24 May with hospital records, surgical notes, GP confirmation of post-operative incapacity, and the physiotherapist sign-off date as the file-back-to-work moment.
If HMRC accepts the excuse, the £240 in daily charges is cancelled. The £100 stays in place because it was not appealed in time, unless HMRC accepts a late appeal for that too. The same evidence, sent inside the original window, would have covered the £100 as well.
Common Questions About Daily Penalty Appeals
Can I appeal both the £100 and the daily penalty in the same SA370?
Yes, where you are inside both 30-day windows. One SA370 covers every penalty for the same tax year: list each penalty, its amount and notice date, with one explanation covering the full period.
Do daily penalties apply under Making Tax Digital?
Not for sole traders and landlords who must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which became mandatory in April 2026 for qualifying income over £50,000. From the 2026 to 2027 tax year a late return earns them a penalty point instead, with a £200 penalty once they reach 4 points. Everyone else, and every return for 2025 to 2026 and earlier, stays on the £100 and £10 a day system.
What if my daily penalty notice arrived months after the daily charges started?
The 30-day window runs from the notice date, not the start of the charges. Even if HMRC notified you slowly, your appeal window starts from when they actually told you. Save the original envelope or e-notice timestamp as evidence of when you received it.
Does HMRC consider partial appeals on daily penalties?
Yes. If your reasonable excuse covered February through April but not May, HMRC can cancel the daily charges accrued during the excused period and uphold them for the unexcused period. Frame the appeal accordingly rather than claiming a blanket excuse for the whole 90 days.
If the £100 was already paid, can the daily-penalty appeal still succeed?
Yes. Payment of one penalty has no procedural effect on the appeal of another. The two charges are separate notices with separate appeal rights.