As an accountancy firm based in Wolverhampton, we have seen a lot of businesses messing their taxes up and rushing for help at the end of chaos.
The stupefying fact that was found as the most prevalent reason among them was that most of them prepared their taxes on deadline. HMRC even claims that the tax deadline 2016 was overlooked by 870,000 taxpayers and the fines collected that year amounted to more than £100.
Meeting deadline is a good thing morally but accumulating all the things for taxation on the brink of the deadline is definitely not suggestable. Rather, the last-minute tax doers should adopt a habit of collecting things beforehand.
Otherwise any mistake, in no time, can make you appear as a black sheep. Ultimately you know the consequences very well- hefty fines, frequent intrusion, effects on your credibility and many more.
There is another thing that our tax experts at Trilogy tax and accountancy firm Wolverhampton have worked out for the last-minute taxpayers. Briefly tailored to convenience and made keeping in mind the contemporary smart man’s fast-paced life, is a self-assessment tax checklist that all firms can rely on. Here’s the checklist along with some additional important details regarding the points.
- Registration for self-assessment tax return
Whether you are self-employed, Partner or executioner of state, self-assessment tax return is a must. Not just the categories mentioned in the prior line but many others need to get registered and abide by the further obligations and responsibilities related to self-assessment. You might register and then wait for the following:
- Your UTR number (Unique Taxation Reference) that grants you an individual identity in HMRC’s taxation system. This won’t take more than 7-10 days to show up.
- An activation PIN number that authorizes you for government gateway.
- Government gateway id, so that you can access HMRC online services.
- Be familiar with the self-assessment deadlines:
Tax return for a random year amounts from April 6th of the prior year to April 5th of the year, whose self-assessment tax return is to be filed. Now the question arises of the deadline date. Generally, you need to settle your tax return by January 31st online or October 31st by post. For a more lucid clarity about deadlines, you can also visit the HMRC’s website.
- Look for appropriate self-assessment form/forms:
First of all, you might need SA100 that is the basic form required in the process. Other than this, you may need to fill in one or more from following:
- SA102, in case you earn some additional/secondary wage or supplementary income from employment.
- SA103S, if being self-employed, your turnover goes below £85,000 (latest bar set for VAT).
- SA103F, if being self-employed, you earn more than £85,000 yearly.
- SA104F(full) or SA104S(short) according to your income, if you are a partner in a partnership firm
- SA800, if you are one of the partners, belonging to a non-LLP partnership. (Note that only one person needs to do it for the whole partnership firm.)
- SA105, if you earn some part of your earning from the property.
- SA106, if you receive any kind of revenue from abroad (from delivery of product or service, some sort of investment or any other sources).
- SA107, if you have receipts from some trust or settlement.
- SA108, if you have income from capital gains.
- SA109, if you live in some abroad country and yet are entitled to pay tax to the UK government.
- Make sure that you have access to the most credible information about your business:
Assure and re-assure but at last be ready with the most appropriate information regarding:
- Activation PIN.
- UTR number.
- Company type (partnership, sole proprietor or other), name, number, address.
- National Insurance Number.
- Annual turnover and expenditure of your business.
- Yearly earning from another source/employment.
- Aids received as gifts or grants.
- Income from the property.
- Proceeds from capital investments.
- Receipts from Partnership.
- Income from abroad.
- Money received as a pension.
- Monetary gains secured from state or employer.
- Interest paid on certain loans, credit cards, or other forms of credit
- Any saved sum of money.
- Income received as a dividend
- Any partial payment of tax that you have made this year
- Get geared up with some important documents in possession:
- Invoices of all the expenses made in the tax year.
- Certifications assuring the amount of interest received by you from the bank.
- P11D
- P2 coding notice
- P60
- Know and claim some of the claimable expenses made by you:
As a business, many of your expenses are tax-deductible. You might not know but some expenses pertaining to the following are claimable.
- Travel
- Clothing
- Electricity and Gas
- Property Rent
- Office equipment and stationary
- Financial services
- Legal services
- Employees
- Entertainment
- Basic amenities
- Marketing
There are even more expenses that are tax-deductible. You must do extensive research regarding all those expenses and know, how and in what amount are they deductible.
Wrap:
By giving all the above points, a thorough check and verifying if you have all the above-listed information, you can be free from any last-minute stress that may fall when you don’t have a consummate checklist. Now, you are just left with the final three steps and that is:
- Thorough completion of the forms related to the tax return.
- Submission of forms after paying it a good check.
- Payment of taxation within the deadline.
Things seeming difficult to handle? Trilogy accountancy firm Wolverhampton can assist you in any step where you are struck. However, you also can delegate your taxation to Trilogy accountancy firm and you won’t ever get a reason to complain.
