How to complete your Self Assessment tax return in six simple steps

Presented by leading small-business and tax content expert Mark Williams, the brand new Tax Tea Break with GoSimpleTax podcast series is packed with FREE tax tips for sole traders, private landlords and expat Brits. In this…

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Last Updated: 23rd March 2023

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Presented by leading small-business and tax content expert Mark Williams, the brand new Tax Tea Break with GoSimpleTax podcast series is packed with FREE tax tips for sole traders, private landlords and expat Brits.

In this fifth episode of the series, GoSimpleTax’s very own expert, Technical Director Mike Parkes, provides unmissable tips to help you get your Self Assessment tax return completed in six simple steps.

Topics discussed include:

•  How to register for Self Assessment so you can file a tax return. 

•  How to improve your knowledge so that it’s easier to complete your Self Assessment tax return.

•  What information you’ll need to hand to complete your Self Assessment tax return.

•  When and where to complete your Self Assessment tax return.

• Where you can get support and why using Self Assessment tax return software makes good sense.

Transcript

Mark Williams: Hello and welcome to the fifth episode of a brand new podcast called Tax Teare with Go Simple Tax. It's a six-part podcast series where I speak to tax and Self Assessment experts who offer free time and money saving tax tips for soul traders, private landlords, and others who pay UK tax by self-assessment.

My name is Mark Williams and I'm your host. Hopefully you've made yourself. cuppa Now. Each 20 minute episode has its own subject, and in this our fifth episode, we'll be talking about how to complete your Self Assessment tax return in six simple steps. Very few people enjoy filling in tax returns, and some people really struggle with them because they don't find it easy.

It can be something they put off because they just hate doing them so much. In this episode, we're gonna give you guidance on how to get your Self Assessment tax return completed in six simple steps, which hopefully is gonna make your life much. Before I introduce today's guest expert, let's find out more about Go Simple Tax and how it could benefit you if you pay tax via self-assessment tax returns.

GoSimpleTax Ad: Tax returns, do you fill you with fear? Self Assessments can be, uh, well taxing at go simple tax. Our software makes it a double. Submit your return quickly and easily. Simple go simple tax flags, potential tax savings, and deductions you may be entitled to and could save you money. An inbuilt error checker ensures no mistakes are made, and with tens of thousands of returns submitted, you are in good hands.

Our excellent support team is there to support you at every step of the way. Go simple tax, the easy solution for making tax digital. Did I mention it's free to try? Let us help you. Go simple tax, the simple Way to Tax return.

Mark Williams: It's time now to introduce our expert, Mike Parks, who is the technical director of Go Simple Tax. For most of Mike's 30 year career, he's worked in practice as well as for H M R C. So Mike has a thorough knowledge of personal and small business tax, including completing and filing Self Assessment tax returns.

Welcome, Mike.

Mike Parkes: Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.

Mark Williams: You must have seen. Thousands of tax returns over the years, Mike?

Mike Parkes: Literally thousands. Yes. I've been doing Self Assessment since 1997. Software. Quite a few.

Mark Williams: And I suppose we should start by making the important point that in order to file a Self Assessment tax return, you've got to be registered.

So if you haven't, if you didn't p uh, file a tax return last year, the first thing you should do is make sure you're registered.

Mike Parkes: Yeah, that's crucial. Without registration and obtaining the utr, that's a unique taxpayer reference. You cannot file a tax return. Absolutely crucial. First piece of crucial information register.

Mark Williams: Great. Okay. And people do that via the government website gov.uk, don't they?

Mike Parkes: Correct. Yes. You can do it online or you can download the paperwork and send it in, uh, manually if you want to. Obviously online's quicker than you would receive the utr much quicker. So need to use help. Plenty of time.

Mark Williams: And then what happens if you've say you, you've filled in a Self Assessment tax return previously, say a number of years ago, you'll already have the U T R, the unique taxpayer reference number.

So it's just a matter of digging that out, making sure that you know what that is.

Mike Parkes: Correct, generally speaking or you only ever have one utr number throughout your entire lives. But there are exceptions to that case. But generally speaking, you'll get one. If you forget it, you can go on the government website and trigger a reminder, all of that as well.

I'll give them a call or in a web chat and they can initiate something out, some paperwork and reminder for you.

Mark Williams: Okay, Mike. So let's move on to your first simple step then.

Mike Parkes: Simply, it's just to improve your knowledge around the tax and the tax around your personal

affairs. So as you're employed, what does that entail?

What the answers can you claim? If you're self-employed, what your obligations in terms of, uh, recording, recording income, expenses, et cetera. There's a wealth of information out there. Some of it good, some of it bad. A good starting point was HMRCs website.

Mark Williams: Yeah. So they says, so they offer help sheets, don't they?

Particularly on things, um, which will come on to speak about, but supplementary pages where the information can be slightly more complex.

Mike Parkes: Correct, yes.

So every um, supplementary page, as you say, will have different help sheets and most supplementary pagers are related to specific types of income and the therefore the guidance on related to that income side or expense.

Mark Williams: Great. Okay. And if, and if relevance, I mean even digging out your tax return, previous tax returns, just to refresh your memory, uh, remind yourself of what information you need to enter and where it goes. That can be helpful, can't it?

Mike Parkes: Yeah, it's always a good starting point. It's a done one in the past, so I always looked at previous year tax returns.Uh, that will help you and also help you re not miss anything as well. .

Mark Williams: Great. Okay. And then for people that haven't seen a sort of self Self Assessment tax return previously, normally they're made up of two parts, aren't they? You've got the main tax return. Which is the SA 100 form, and then there are supplementary pages.

Can you give us a few examples of what those, uh, supplementary pages would be, Mike?

Mike Parkes: Yeah. The main ones, the popular ones, will be the SA 1 0 2, which is to declare or re record your self, self-employment income. P11D if you have company benefits, car benefits, medical benefits, like that information goes on the SA 1 0 2. If you're a sole trader, then you're still an SA103 full

Or an SA103 short. The main distinction between the two is if you have turnover and self-employment is less than 85,000. We do the short version. It's more than 85,000, be full version, and you can go on to your income from the trust. So if you're a beneficiary of a trust, that's an SA 1 0 7.

If you have capital gain tax that sell asset, charitable capital gain tax, that's form SA108 and of course you've got the SA 1 0 5, which is a property income, and that covers such things as furnish to holiday lettings or buy to let

Mark Williams: So can we move on then to your second step please?

Mike Parkes: Yeah, sure. The next step is really to make sure you've gather all your information together. So you, you, you've locked up previous, years tax returns you've made, have them a list of the types of income that you've got, but then actually go away and get the information you need. So do you have a UTR number? If you have that,

make sure you've got that to handy. National Insurance number. Details of any taxed income that you've had during the year. A common mistake if people will miss off their employment of off the self assessment tax return because leave, HMRC have that information already. And whilst they do, it's important whilst we included in tax return.

So gathering all that information. If you make payments to charity, to pensions, et cetera, just bring it all together. It's a new software. That's great and can record it in the software if you're not comfortable with software, simple spreadsheet or just a book just to write it down. Just make sure you're not missing anything.

Mark Williams: And it really can't be overstated.

Just how much easier it makes filling out a Self Assessment tax return. If you're a sole trader and all your income and expenses are all nicely itemised within software, then, then it just saves you so much time and effort, doesn't it?

Mike Parkes: Oh, it's much easier. Everything's to happen for you on the, and more importantly you're less likely to miss expenses and income when you, when you record things down in software.as an example, if you are self employed and you don't write down your expenses and you miss something, you could end up over paying taxes. Now, currently if you miss a hundred pounds of expenses with national insurance, you're in the region of 30 pounds extra tax pay. And that adds up.

Mark Williams: It, it does indeed.Great point. Thanks Mike. So can we move forward then to your step three?

Mike Parkes: Yeah. It's fully, actually one of the most important ones is, is get the timing right and don't leave it till the last minute. It's in the region. Something. 45% of people filed a tax return within the last 40, 30 days before the deadline.

That's given themselves an an, an immense amount pressure, putting himself under pressure as long as it fall at Christmas. The time when you wanna be relaxing and having, and spending time with the. You've got pressure of the deadline and that's when the mistakes make they made. So there's no reason why you can't start printing the tax return in in the April after the end of the tax year.

Mark Williams: Yeah, and just to make the point, just because you do file early, it doesn't affect the time when you need to pay the tax. As you say, it's just better use of your time, get the tax return done and dusted off your plate, and then you haven't got that mad panic come December or January as you're sort of battling sort of that online filing.

Mike Parkes: Absolutely. You don't yet. You're absolutely right. So you could find your tax in April, may, June of the year. You still don't pay taxes until January the following year. And there's, there's no desire, there's no an urgency to pay the tax. And, uh, on, on the flip side of that, if you do have a higher tax bill then anticipated, you've got some advanced notice.

There's nothing worse than completing the tax return the last week of January and not realising you haven't sufficient savings to come to the tax bill.

Mark Williams: Indeed. And you talk about picking the right time, so you're not battling a deadline, you're not up against. How important is it to pick the right place as well?

So you're free from distraction, you need sort of be able to concentrate on the task in hand really, don't you?

Mike Parkes: I think so. If you can, cause you've got a family at home, try try and take a step away from the family uh, wherever it may be. Just, just settle down in a quiet space, uh, and get, and get the crack on with it.

Mark Williams: Okay, thanks Mike. And can we move forward then onto step four?

Mike Parkes: Yeah, take your time. Don't rush. Don't leave. If you're not leaving until the last minute, you should have time. Our figures bundled around about takes on average three hours to complete Self Assessment tax return, you know, three hours is quite a lot, quite an intense time to sit down and, and, and, and spend filing the tax return.

So you might want to do it in a couple of sessions. So, yeah, just taking time. Don't rush it. Mistakes happen when, when things are rushed.

Mark Williams: Exactly. And as you say, you're more likely to miss things put, put the wrong figures in or enter the wrong, uh, the right figures in the wrong place. So it is about taking your time, being methodical, and just working through it in a very logical, ordered way.

Mike Parkes: Absolutely. Yeah. Go, goes back to that first step. Get everything together, get the list. Work through the list methodically and take your time.

Mark Williams: And, and talking of mistakes. Then, Mike, I mean, what happens if someone realises later that they have made a mistake in the Self Assessment tax return? Is there a way for them to amend it?

Mike Parkes: Yes. So the filing deadline for a tax return is the 31st of January, but you have another 12 months after that date in which to make any amendments. So if you do call, you missed some income or missed some expenses, and you need to update your tax return you're perfectly entitled to do. So you've got 12 months in which to do , the caveat to that is if as a result of making the amendment you owe extra tax, and not only will you have to pay extra tax, then then minus and interest charges to depending on when the extra tax is paid.

Similarly, they'll excuse overpaid tax and won't be pay very opposite against any future tax liabilities.

Mark Williams: So I suppose the important thing is it, it pays to not make those mistakes and get it as accurate and spot on as you can really.

Mike Parkes: Absolutely. But there are times when you might need to submit and you might not have the actual information to hand when you file your tax return

you might be waiting for some if you're self-employed, not waiting for confirmation for something from the supplier or something, or the bank or a loan interest, or could be a number of reasons why you can't file accurate intonation at the time. And that's absolutely acceptable. So it's important that there is a mechanism there should you need to make.

Mark Williams: Great. Thanks Mike. So step five.

Mike Parkes: Yes, so that comes on to read the type when you're filling it out, make sure you read the boxes, make sure you understand what information if required. If necessary, reference the boxes or the, the information to HMRC help sheets. So referring back to the previous page schedules, if you, the SA1 0 2 employment page, a supporting help sheet, and I'll tell, that'll give you guidance required in the two boxes.

Again, taking your time and reading through those, making sure you're not listening anything. Yeah.

Mark Williams: So rushing through it, not reading things carefully, you, you can get it wrong. And that can lead to the mistakes that we've already spoken about. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Great. Okay, so step six, Mike?

Mike Parkes: Ask for help.

Nothing wrong in asking for help. Everybody needs help at some point. So there are various places you can get help from. Again, start with HMRC, they do have some good and some good help sheets on their website. They don't go into too much details. It is a broad rush approach they have, but I would always start.

There are some other good websites you can look at. So for example, the low income tax reform group, that's a really good place to go. Researching HMRC. You can phone them up if there are delays. I'm dealing with them, but they can be also be helpful on the phone. And even sometimes you do web chat with HMRC, so there's lots of, lots of different resources and availability.

But again, the closer you leave until January, the longer you're gonna have to wait on the phone. The longer you're gonna have to wait on web chat. The more rushing around you're gonna be looking for this help. And as. If you're using software, then the software will, will, will generally provide help, files and guides and hint and tips.

Uh, also it counts off a specific tax advice, but it can give you general guidance, so that's always a good source of information as well. And ultimately if you com, if you, if feel really uncomfortable or your affairs are a little bit more complex, then you could use an accountant or a tax advisor.

Mark Williams: But obviously that comes with the cost and, and that cost is likely to be higher than if you use sort of dedicated Self Assessment filing software.

Mike Parkes: Yes. Yeah. You would generally, um, there are some sense out there that, that those things vary, depend on circumstances. Some accountants and tax advisors charged by the hour as well, so it can become quite costly.

Mark Williams: Brilliant steps there. Mike. Just let's look at and move on to now common reasons why people miss the filing deadline.

Obviously, the online filing deadline is midnight on 31st of January. What happens if someone misses that deadline? One of the consequences of that?

Mike Parkes: There's an immediate fine of a hundred pounds. That's the first thing, and that's that. That's the main drive people filing type return on. Fine, escalate the long year new, uh, your return outstanding and up to year, up to 1200 pounds, so it's extremely expensive.

not to file your tax return on time, why the people file tax returns late, forget genuinely forget Some people actually don't care. We have been working in tax. for many, many years, and sometimes you see the same people have, you file tax to pay the fine, tax becomes, it's a cyclical event for them. It just part and parcel of their business or they're their line.

So you do have a small minority of people in, in that. Fear, people are not scared of it, don't know how to do it, leave it to the last minute, panic. And it is, is a fear factor around taxes. You don't want to get, get it wrong. You don't wanna offset the tax man et cetera. Oh, there could be, could be genuine reasons, you could be. Ill cover, suffer the bereavement reason. So there also, there are lots of reasons why people who, uh, file tax returns late.

Mark Williams: And in those cases, if someone does file late and there are genuine understandable reasons, then then you can contact, you can speak to H M R C and, and maybe that late filing penalty can be waived in certain circumstances.

Mike Parkes: Yes, in certain circumstances can. Yes. So, and, and then again, that process can be done online as well. You can make, so once the penatly notices have been issued we can appeal that online.

Mark Williams: Great. Mike, once again, thank you very much indeed for joining us and lots of great advice in there. All that remains is for me, say thank you very much for being a superb guest. And for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.

Mike Parkes: You're welcome. Thank you very much.

Mark Williams: There you have it. So what are the three key takeaways from this episode? One, make your life much less stressful. Don't leave filling in your Self Assessment tax return to the last minute. You can do it as soon as the new tax year begins on sixth of. Two, pre arm yourself with the information you need to complete your tax return, and don't rush because this is where mistakes can happen.

Three, reach out for support and make best use of technology so that completing your Self Assessment tax return is made much easier. Hopefully this episode has given you lots of great tips so that from now on, you'll find it much easier to complete and file your Self Assessment tax return. You can also head over to the Go Simple Tax website, which is go simple tax.com, where you find lots of great free content on Self Assessment

and many other tax related topics. In our next episode, you can find out more about making Tax Digital, which has already impacted vat. Registered businesses. Income tax Self Assessment is next, and making tax Digital will bring in some significant changes that you really need to know about and prepare for.

So don't miss the sixth and final episode of the series. We hope that you've enjoyed this episode and that you've picked up lots of great tips. Please tell others about this podcast and like, and share our social media posts because we really do want to help as many soul traders, private landlords, and ex-pats as possible.

Thanks for listening. Until next time.

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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.

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