Self-Assessment Tax Return – deadline
looming close
The best holiday season is upon us, whether
you are religious or not, there is always something magical about
Christmas. The last thing on our minds
is the dreaded self
assessment tax return due to be submitted to the HMRC by 31 January.
Unfortunately for us, if it’s late, there is an fixed penalty of £100 and one
may also incur a daily penaly for each day of late submission, which escalates
as time passes before submission.
If you owe tax on your income this must be
paid to HMRC by 31 January following the end of the tax year and if left unpaid,
penalties and interest accrue.
So the question remains, do you need to
complete that self-assessment tax return?
A self
assessment tax return need to completed if you are self-employed, or in
receipt of rental income, or have income from other investments and saving such
as dividends, overseas investments ect. If you have made profits on a sell of
an asset such as a second property or shares then there may be a case of having
to pay capital gains tax.
One understands this all sounds daunting, convoluted
and more importantly expensive. The last thing any of us want is to do is hand
over our more than our fair share of hard earned monies over to the Revenue. And there in comes the assistance to mitigate
your tax liability with expert help.
When your calculating your self-employed
tax return there are a number of allowable expenses that are deductible. As a self-employed
person you will incur expenses to help you carry on with your business such as
materials and tools you may have needed in order to trade. Travel expenses to help you get around like
fuel, rail fare, insurance for your car, offices costs such as heating
lighting, stationery, telephone charges, financial costs include insurance and bank
charges, staff costs, marketing costs to advertise your business, even clothing
such as a uniform or protective gear, the list is endless. These expenses may be deductible against your
income.
Self-employed tax return for a self-employed
person is not an exercise to dread, when you take all the expenses into consideration
your tax payable may not be as high as you think. For example if you turnover £30,000 over the
year and your expenses total £10,000, you will only have to pay tax on £20,000
less the personal allowances.
Self-assessment tax return need to include
all income received from other sources along with your salary or wages. As
explained above income from investments and savings or rental income, overseas
investments, also includes income received in the UK while living abroad. Each
of these categories have different levels of income tax computations dependant
on the tax band and the levels of exemptions. For your self- assessment tax
return help Click
here.
Get together all the documents needed to
compute your tax return before Christmas, that way your self
assessment tax return is submitted on time, no penalty charge and you have
more than 30 days to allow yourself time to save for any tax payments due if at
all, by 31 January. This way the new year
starts with a clean slate.