I had never heard anything from the tax bods until 3 years ago I got a bill for THREE!! fines for not filing a tax return for the previous 3 years. I phoned the helpful number and asked why I needed to file a return, and why they hadn't mentioned this for the previous years, and was told I didn't need to file one if I was just PAYE and nothing else.
One month later, more bills and why hadn't I submitted that year's form, so rang again and spoke to another bod who said as I was in high rate, I had to file, and I was supposed to know this (didn't explain how I was supposed to know, or why their colleague had told me I didn't need to...).
Anyway, upshot was I filled in all the forms and they reduced the £300 fine to the amount of tax owed. £6 over the 3 years!! They had over taxed me for 1 and I had underpaid for 2.
I was speaking to another guy at work about this and he phoned the tax office to see if he had to file a return and was told no, only to receive a fine the next year!!!
Arse and elbow?
I'd write to your tax office and get it in writing if you're supposed to file or not. Probably wont make a difference in the end but at least you tried...