With less than 10 days to go until the 31 January deadline, analysis by tax return software company GoSimpleTax shows one person filed their self-assessment form at 17 seconds before midnight last year, showing just how far people push their luck.

If you miss the deadline, you could face a £100 fine.

Self-employed workers, partners in a business, and anyone with an annual income of £100,000 or more are among those required to file a tax return to HMRC. (For a full list click here).

Mike Parkes, technical director of GoSimpleTax, said: “We always advise people to complete their tax return as early as possible to prevent stress and to avoid making errors.

“However, people have busy lives and other deadlines get in the way. In the next few days people all over the country will be panic filing.”

Hundreds of people filing their self-assessment form could also be missing out on claiming as much as £355 worth of expenses, according to GoSimpleTax.

The most common expenses that people fail to claim for correctly are fuel, phone costs, car servicing, car insurance and use of a home office.

People who don’t know or forget about fuel expenses miss out on claiming an average of £600 year, those that leave phone costs out of their claim lose an average of £450, and those that forget to claim for car servicing, car insurance and the use of a home office neglect to claim around £303, £216 and £208 respectively, the firm said.

HMRC were forced to apologise today after some taxpayers were sent penalty notices despite submitting their form ahead of the deadline.

You can register for and file your self-assessment form here.