A nightclub, wife's aliens and vertigo

Every year, HMRC receives a number of imaginative and intriguing excuses for not completing tax returns on time.

Recent excuses include I couldn’t file my return on time as my wife has been seeing aliens and won’t let me enter the house; my ex-wife left my tax return upstairs, but I suffer from vertigo and can’t go upstairs to retrieve it; and my business doesn’t really do anything.

Each year also sees some widely optimistic expense claims, such as a three-piece suite for my partner to sit on when I’m doing my accounts; birthday drinks at a Glasgow nightclub; and vet fees for a rabbit.