Get Ready For The New Tax Year – Calculate As You Go

Get Ready For The New Tax Year – Calculate As You Go

The rush to meet the Self Assessment deadline is maddening for anyone who earns outside of PAYE. Every year, millions of people push their tax return through at the final hour and pledge never to leave it late again. But, alas, they find themselves in the exact same unenviable position 12 months later.

There may also be a lack of clarity around how much you owe, and changes to your circumstances – such as adding to your rental portfolio, increasing rents on existing properties, or investing in HMRC-run schemes like EIS or SEIS – can affect your tax liability too. If you reach the end of the tax year with not enough money in the bank to cover any eventualities, you can put yourself in a difficult position.

There’s a simple remedy for staying stress-free though: calculate tax as you go! With a new tax year on the horizon, there’s no better time to start getting prepared. Here are some handy tips:

Organise – and digitise – your paperwork

Businesses are reducing paper usage as much as possible in the digital climate. But you still need to obtain receipts for anything you’d like to claim back on expenses (as proof of purchase for HMRC), and you may also have to hand over physical invoices and contracts to clients in person to obtain signatures.

As we move into the new tax year, assess how you store and organise this paperwork. It might be a case of assigning trays and labelling them accordingly, or even using digital tools (like GoSimpleTax) that allow you to photograph evidence and store it in the cloud. Being organised can save you hours of time and minimise errors, keeping HMRC happy and giving you the freedom to concentrate on other matters.

Take advantage of tax software

Those who already use tax software wonder how they ever lived without it. It’s a lifesaver for sorting Self Assessment tax returns – making the process incredibly easy by performing the calculations for you and taking large piles of paper out of the equation.

The best software enables you to log income and expenditure as you go, via the app or from your desktop, so you know exactly how much to save for your tax bill. Cloud software means you don’t even need to be near a desk to do your calculations. Any purchases or sales can be recorded right away with the tap of a button.

Make Self Assessments plain sailing with GoSimpleTax

The earlier you tidy your accounts for the current tax year, the sooner you can start preparing for a new one. GoSimpleTax’s cloud-based software offers you the perfect platform on which to conduct all your calculations as you go, allowing you to prepare a flawless Self Assessment tax return and submit it to HMRC when you’re ready.

Moving from one tax year to another is the perfect time to turn over a new leaf and go digital, especially with Making Tax Digital on the horizon. Make the switch over easy by taking advantage of tools that streamline financial management for you. Register for your free trial of GoSimpleTax today and see just how easy it is to keep on top of your finances.

If you have any questions in the meantime, drop us a line using our contact form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Blog content is for information purposes and over time may become outdated, although we do strive to keep it current. It's written to help you understand your Tax's and is not to be relied upon as professional accounting, tax and legal advice due to differences in everyone's circumstances. For additional help please contact our support team or HMRC.