If you are lucky enough not to have to fill in a Self Assessment tax return every year, HMRC may still decide to check your income every so often to make sure you do not pay too much or too little tax.

The form they use is a review form 810 which they may issue every three years - sometimes, more frequently It has now become known that for the tax year to 5 April 2010 HMRC have not generated the bulk issue of the form 810, and this may be due to the fact that they report that only about half of the forms issued are actually completed. There is no penalty for not filling in the form itself, but of course if further tax is due there can be interest and penalties charged. On the other hand, many people will lose a tax refund which the completion of form 810 might otherwise generate.

If you are not asked to complete a tax return but perhaps you pay tax under PAYE with some taxable benefits; and/or you pay charitable donations; and/or you have other sources of income, ask us to do a review in case the tax you paid at source in the tax year to 5 April 2010 is not the same as the tax actually due.