One of the biggest areas of uncertainty that many self employed and small businesses experience is the tax system. Although there are several guides issued by the HMRC, they can be both long winded and sometimes confusing.
It’s an area that as part of our accounting services, our tax specialists at Positive Accountants are able to help deliver some clarity and un-muddy the waters.
The Tax Return
The first area of confusion that often arises is the actual dates that the tax return needs to be filed by and submitted. Although many people who are on PAYE don’t really need to deal with the taxman directly.
You are obliged by law to send a tax return if, in the last tax year (6 April to 5 April), you were self-employed and earned more than £1,000 (before taking off anything you can claim tax relief on)
As at this current tax year you have until 31 January 2023 to file your self-assessment tax return. It’s often something businesses feel they have all the time in the world to deal with, but then find that the deadline always comes around much quicker than you expect.
Prepare yourself
Recently HMRC made claims that the process for self-employed self-assessment has become somewhat simpler over the years. What is certain is that many businesses disagree with this statement and still find some sections confusing. While professional small business accountants like ourselves are well versed and ahead of the curve when it comes to preparing our clients returns, we still double check things.
Being unprepared can cause your return to be filed late, and then you find yourself in the situation of potentially dealing with fines.
You need a number of things to hand when filling out your self-assessment tax return, so it’s a good idea to get these ready if you are thinking of going through the trials yourself.
As premier accountants in London, we are always well prepared to act on your behalf.
You Need:
- Your Ten-digit UTR.
- Your full Government Gateway ID.
- National insurance number, and check you have it correct.
- Self-employment income and expenditure either as a file or list or spreadsheet that can be cross checked.
- All of your business invoices and receipts.
- A copy of your business bank statements relevant to the tax year
- Your declared Partnership income if applicable.
- Any and all information relating to any other untaxed income from the previous tax year, including items such as, rental income, dividends from shares, interest on savings, profits from sales of things like investments and second homes (capital gains)
- Your P60 or any other documents showing how much tax you have already paid on your employment income or pensions.
- All the details of any money you have donated to charity and gift aid
- our pension contributions and any pension income.
- Details of any redundancy payment and any employment benefits you may have received.
- And last but by no means least, lots of cups of tea or coffee, and maybe some wine on standby.
Now all you have to do is complete the entire return.
Now you can see why our professional and experienced accounting services are in such high demand from small businesses that should be focused on working and growing their business, so make life easier and talk to us about your tax return.
Submission and payment
If this is your first online tax return, you will need to register first. The registration can take up to 20 days to be completed, so it’s important to allow for that time before the deadline.
Once you have completed the registration, HMRC will send you your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number and instructions on how to set up your Government Gateway account, you will then be sent an activation code to finish setting up the account. There are a number of ways to pay your tax bill and we will advise you of the best method at the time depending on your circumstances.
For many small businesses and registered self employed, the most common sense approach is to engage small business accountants who can take all of this strain away, to allow you to focus completely on your business and delivering your services.
Not that we wish to be seen to be seen to be scaremongering, but always remember HMRC takes non-payment of tax seriously and does have the power in the most serious of cases to make you bankrupt and add penalties and fines that can quickly escalate.
Making sure you DO NOT ever get fined is part of our accounting services, and we take care of our clients.
And finally
If you are due a repayment after filing your tax return, you will be surprised to learn that there are significant delays with HMRC making tax refunds due to additional security checks taking place as a result of the increase in fraud as part of the Coronavirus pandemic.
As highly professional accountants in London, we dont let them rest until our clients are paid “in full”
Positive Accountants are your one stop business support centre for professional accounting services.
