Research and analysis

Self Assessment Campaign Tracking report 2024 to 2025

Published 6 November 2025

Quantitative research with Self Assessment customers

HM Revenue and Customer (HMRC) Research Report 841

Research conducted by YouGov between November 2024 and February 2025, the findings in this report reflect the attitudes of participants at the time it was conducted.

Prepared by YouGov (Sarah Prescott-Smith, Honor Gray and Tom Powell) for HM Revenue and Customs.

The views in this report are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of HM Revenue and Customs.

1. Research background  

Self Assessment is a process HMRC use to collect Income Tax. Most income tax is collected automatically through PAYE (pay as you earn) from wages and pensions. However, approximately 12 million HMRC customers have other taxable income that requires them to complete a Tax Return.  

Each year HMRC runs a comprehensive Self Assessment communications programme. This programme focuses on 3 key phases, encouraging customers to: 

• firstly, file their Tax Return early 

• secondly, check and if necessary, register for Self Assessment ahead of the registration deadline  

• thirdly, file their online Tax Return by the deadline of 31 January 

A paid-for advertising campaign supports other Self Assessment communications, ahead of the online tax return deadline. The advertising runs between late December and the end of January and is a final reminder to customers, driving urgency and prompting customers to file on-time. 

1.1 Research objectives 

This research was designed to understand the effectiveness of the 2024 to 2025 Self Assessment advertising campaign across 4 key areas of measurement: 

• spontaneous and prompted awareness of the campaign among Self Assessment customers 

• recognition of different campaign channels, including audio, video and static images 

• response to campaign elements: message take-out and understanding of the call to action 

• pre- and post-campaign wave shifts in knowledge and attitudes as a result of exposure to the campaign 

1.2 Methodology 

Two waves of survey research were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the 2024 to 2025 campaign. First, a pre-campaign wave, which functioned as a baseline prior to the campaign running. Second, a post-campaign wave which was used to look for changes in awareness and perceptions compared to the pre-campaign wave.  

The pre-campaign wave took place from 22 November to 11 December 2024, and the post-campaign wave from 6 February to 25 February 2025. Five hundred and twenty-six Self Assessment customers were surveyed in the pre-campaign wave, and another separate 555 Self Assessment customers were surveyed in the post-campaign. 

Customers were sampled from across the UK using the YouGov online panel. Respondents who completed the Self Assessment research in previous years were excluded from completing this year’s research. Respondents who completed the pre-campaign wave were excluded from the post-campaign wave. These exclusion criteria were put in place to minimise the risk of the data being biased by previous exposure to the topic. 

In the post-campaign wave, each customer was shown or played examples of the following HMRC campaign materials: 

• one of 2 audio adverts (rotated evenly across the sample) 

• one of 2 video adverts (rotated evenly across the sample) 

• two static images (shown to all) 

• one of 3 video influencer adverts (rotated evenly across the sample) 

In this report, comparisons are made between the pre- and post-campaign waves of the survey. Differences in response across waves have been significance tested at a 95% level, and only significant increases or decreases have been reported on. 

1.3 Sample composition  

The target audience of the advertising campaign are unrepresented Self Assessment customers, meaning they do not use a tax agent to submit their Self Assessment Tax Return. The following criteria were developed to establish whether respondents were part of the target audience. Respondents had to fit into at least one of the following:  

1. they had submitted their Self Assessment Tax Return. 

2. they were planning to submit their Tax Return. 

3. they had received the relevant notifications or forms to submit their Tax Return since April 2024.  

Further, to target unrepresented customers, anyone using a tax agent to submit their Tax Return was excluded from the research. Other criteria for exclusion were being an HMRC employee or accountant, and having taken part in previous iterations of the research. 

Quotas were applied at the start of fieldwork based on age, gender and region. These were based on the known demographics of Self Assessment customers who do not use an agent. Applying these quotas during fieldwork ensures the sample is reflective of the target population.  

The same quotas were used to weight the data during analysis. This limits sampling bias by adjusting the sample to match the proportions of the target population. 

2. Findings 

2.1 Introduction  

Throughout, this report refers to respondents’ spontaneous and prompted responses to questions. Spontaneous responses are instances where respondents were asked a question before being shown any information about the topic. Prompted responses are instances where respondents were shown a prompt before or as part of being asked a question.  

2.2 Campaign recall 

2.2.1 Spontaneous recall of advertising or media coverage about dealing with taxes 

To understand awareness of Self Assessment communications, the pre- and post-campaign surveys measured respondents’ spontaneous recall of advertising or media coverage about dealing with their taxes. In the post-campaign wave, 44% of respondents reported seeing such advertising or media coverage, this increased from 28% in the pre-campaign wave.  

2.2.2 Prompted recall of advertising or media coverage about dealing with taxes 

Respondents were then prompted with a list of possible information and advertising sources to ascertain prompted recall. In the post-campaign wave 71% of all respondents recalled seeing or hearing advertising or media coverage from at least one source. Prompted recall increased between the pre- and post-campaign waves from 57% to 71%.  

Multiple sources saw increases in prompted recall between the pre- and post-campaign waves. Email reminders were the source of information or advertising most likely to be recalled in the post-campaign wave, with 40% of respondents recalling them. For example, 20% recalled text messages about Self Assessment in the post-campaign wave compared with 13% in the pre-campaign wave. Fourteen percent recalled information on the GOV.UK website in the post-campaign wave compared with 9% in the pre-campaign wave. Recall of advertising or posters of any kind also doubled from 15% in the pre-campaign wave to 30% in the post-campaign wave. 

Respondents who said they had seen or heard advertising or media coverage were asked to recall whether what they had seen or heard was from HMRC or elsewhere. HMRC was most commonly identified, with 80% of all respondents citing them in the post-campaign wave. In contrast, 9% stated that what they had seen or heard had come from a business (for example, an accountancy firm or accountancy software provider).  

2.2.3 Recognition of adverts used in HMRC’s Self Assessment advertising campaign 

Recognition of the campaign was measured by exposing respondents to different adverts used in the HMRC Self Assessment advertising campaign. Forty-seven percent of all respondents reported recognising at least one of the audio, video, static image, or influencer adverts. 

The audio adverts had the highest levels of recognition, 34% said they had heard the exact advert they were played, or something similar. Twenty-nine percent said they had seen the video adverts or something similar, while 18% reported recognising the static images or something similar, and 16% recognised the influencer adverts (either the exact video or something similar).  

2.3 Campaign messaging  

2.3.1 Main message from adverts used in HMRC’s Self Assessment advertising campaign 

After being shown the video, audio, static, and influencer adverts in the post-campaign survey, respondents were asked to identify the main message of these adverts. The message that respondents most often spontaneously recalled was the ‘31 January’ deadline (28%). When prompted with possible campaign messages, a similar focus on the filing deadline, sense of urgency and mentions of available support emerged. The most commonly identified messages from this prompted list were: 

• ‘You shouldn’t leave it until the last minute to do your Tax Return’ (64%) 

• ‘If you file online you have until 31st January to do your Tax Return’ (64%) 

• ‘It’s important to get on with doing your Tax Return now’ (60%) 

2.3.2 Main message from recalled advertising or media coverage 

Respondents who had seen or heard any advertising or media coverage about dealing with taxes (see Sections 2.2.1 and 2.2.2) were asked to identify the main message of this advertising or media coverage. The most commonly recalled message was the filing deadline with 78% citing this in the post-campaign wave. This increased from 67% in the pre-campaign.  

Following this, in the post-campaign wave 23% recalled messaging to do with Self Assessment in general, a decline from 39% in the pre-campaign wave. The same proportion (23%) recalled messaging to do with penalties in the post-campaign wave, an increase of 11 percentage points from 12% in the pre-campaign.  

2.4 Attitudes towards HMRC adverts  

2.4.1 Agreement with statements about HMRC adverts  

After being shown the HMRC adverts, respondents’ attitudes towards the adverts were generally positive, with more agreeing with positive statements about the adverts than disagreeing. Messaging was well understood, with 88% saying that it was clear what the adverts were telling them to do. Over half said that the adverts told them something worth knowing (54%), and that they are supportive and encouraging (52%).  

Of the negative statements, respondents were most likely to agree that they found the adverts patronising (39%). One third (34%) found them irritating, and fewer (29%) not very memorable. There was a negative correlation between finding the adverts patronising or irritating and both trust in HMRC and belief that HMRC is there to help with tax.  

2.4.2 Actions as a result of the HMRC adverts 

Respondents who had seen or heard any of HMRC’s adverts about Self Assessment were asked what they had done as a result of seeing or hearing the adverts. For some, the adverts served as a call to action, with 25% having completed their Self Assessment after seeing or hearing an advert. Almost one in five (18%)  said they started doing their Self Assessment as a result. One in four (24%) said they thought about what they needed to do to get their Self Assessment done. Over one third (35%) said they had already completed their Self Assessment before seeing or hearing the adverts.