January Deadline
Time is ticking away.
Amount of time left to get your tax return into HMRC:
Have you done your Self-Assessment Tax Return yet?
HMRC are going back to those late penalties and charges, and with the amount of electronic information that is now available, the reasonable excuses are becoming harder to justify. From their point of view, the tax year ended at the beginning of April, so does it really take 10 months to pull everything together?
Hopefully you have already registered as self employed for the previous tax year so have a unique tax reference number. That is the key for doing your tax return, or for somebody else to do it for you.
Fear often kicks in. Doing a tax return is not why you set up in business, after all, you setup business to do what you are good at and enjoy doing. So unless you are an accountant, bookkeeping, accounts and tax can be a nightmare. Some of the questions we get asked include:
- What expenses can I claim?
- How do I account for my income?
- What do I do about the computer I just bought?
- I used my car a lot for business. What can I claim?
- What happens with my pension contributions?
- Do I add my salary into other income or do I miss it out from the tax return?
- What if I don’t have receipts?
- I’ve just started to rent out a flat. What do I need to do?
- Do I really have to declare income from a lodger?
- I’ve sold some old stuff on eBay. Do I need to declare that as income?
We are here to help complete your return from your bookkeeping records, or indeed create your books & accounts from scratch and then file your return. But the longer you delay, the more stress it will cause you, the more sleepless nights and time away from your family & friends, so bite the bullet and contact us on 01344 834260. We will talk you through what is needed, how we can help, the set up as a client, and deadlines to work towards.
Please be aware, if it is after the 20th January, it it unlikely we will be able to get the tax agent authentication sorted (it takes about 10 to 12 days), so unless there is a way round it, you will probably face a £100 penalty from HMRC. Sorry for the bad news, but still give us a call.