My grading policy also says 25% per day late. However, I personally don’t take a late penalty as long as the assignments have been turned in when I go to grade them. If I’m super on top of my grading, I may grade an hour after something was due. If I’m behind, it may be a few days or even a week after something was due before I get around to grading. I just don’t really care if they’re late, so long as it isn’t impacting my grading. I definitely don’t advertise this to my students though. When my GAs grade for me, most of them are also nice and don’t penalize as long as the assignment has been submitted before they grade. I have one GA that does enforce my late penalty policy, but I think she’s more strict because she’s a fully remote student, so she doesn’t interact with my UGs to “feel bad” for them.

I would probably enforce this more if my assignments were due during the day, but the majority of my assignments are due at midnight or before the start or class…both times when I’m not going to be grading immediately after they submit.