A fear of filling in forms may not be a recognised phobia but it is currently gripping hundreds of thousands of taxpayers as the annual tax return deadline looms. Follow our step-by-step guide to getting your return in without incurring a fine. Some 870,000 taxpayers missed last year’s January 31 self-assessment tax filing deadline – landing them with fines of £100 or more. Another 823,000 went to the wire, sending forms in the 48 hours before the cut-off.

About £300million a year remains unspent on such cards, according to industry trade body the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association. This is because despite the generosity of family and friends who have sent them as gifts, as many as ten per cent of cards expire, are forgotten about - or simply lost.

New research has revealed that may major department stores will discount the price if you haggle and three in four shoppers who have tried haggling at John Lewis, TK Maxx and Carphone Warehouse have been successful at scoring cheaper prices so we challenged our writer to it out.

Experts say owners are increasingly treating pets like substitute children, allowing them to gorge on treats such as takeaways, cakes and sweets. Some animals even join families at the table to be fed human food with a fork. An estimated 45 per cent of dogs and 40 per cent of cats are overweight - putting them at greater risk of major illnesses.

Typically, most big stores offer a replacement or refund if goods go missing in the post, arrive damaged or faulty, or fail to match the description the shop gave online. However, you cannot rely on online sellers or smaller stores to help if there is a problem with your order. Money Mail's postbag is filled with a steady stream of letters from customers of these types of firm, whose calls and emails have got them nowhere.

The second-hand ticket market is being probed by the competition watchdog amid concerns that consumer protection laws are being broken. The 'enforcement investigation' by the Competition and Markets Authority will look at seller information, any connections the seller has with the event organisers and whether there are any restrictions on the use of resold tickets which could result in a person being denied access to an event.

Vodafone was recently hit with a record £4.6million fine by Ofcom for serial customer service failings following a sustained campaign by The Mail on Sunday. The fine prompted the company to concede that it had 'let customers down'. Vittorio Colao, group chief executive, confirmed the company was 'working on' fixing its customer service issues which had culminated in inaccurate bills being sent out and complaints being handled poorly.

With an avalanche of price rises from the 'big six' energy providers, now is the time to review your energy tariff and consider locking in to a best-buy fixed-rate tariff before energy companies pull them from the market.

Thousands of Britons who have snapped up a 4K television in the Black Friday sale or as a Christmas treat will be facing higher energy bills for the technology, data claims. Energy bills from watching TV are likely to increase for the first time since 2011, according to British Gas's latest home energy report, thanks to the energy sapping devices.