Not paid tax for 10 years. Help!

I found this thread from someone who was out of the system for 20 years!

They are quoted £300 for an accountant - this was 2008. Some accountants give you a free 1/2 hour consultancy I believe.

Some people suggest getting back into the system and hoping for the best, but HMRC often want to know what you have been doing since they last heard from you.

http://boards.thisismoney.co.uk/tim/threadnonInd.jsp?forum=90&thread=87984

I was wondering what happened before all this started. If you left a PAYE job, you would have been given a P45. If you didn't give this to a new employer or Jobcentre, HMRC would have written to ask you what was going on - each year until they got a reply! Do you remember that?

One file for each tax year is a good idea, with the corresponding paperwork. It is possible for you to estimate the tax due each year, if you sort the expenses out and learn the rules and do a reconstruction. You do need the tax rates, allowances etc for each year for that.

Another option is Citizens Advice: cuts and redundancies are affecting many services, but they may have an advisor who can help.

It seems that you are preparing to report yourself and take what comes: HMRC call it voluntary disclosure. You may be able to negotiate a settlement.

Asking how much an accountant would charge is a very vague question. Accountants fees vary from £minimal to £thousands for the same piece of work. I know this from experience of taking clients on and seeing how much they were paying to previous accountants.

I'd be happy to discuss further offline, I don't like advertising my rates in open forums, but send me a private message if you would like to chat.

Most accountants offer a free initial consultation. Some limit to 30 mins, some are uncapped. If you are looking for a local accountant, it may be worth taking a few accountants up on these meetings to find one you can work with.

Above all, please don't keep secrets from your accountant. He/She is working with you, if you are not completely honest with them they can't fight your case for you properly.

Good luck

In your case I would definitely see an accountant.
The better you can present all teh information (ideally into separate tax years for example) and do some of the summarising work yourself should save you some money.

Reason I would suggest an accountant rather than trying to DIY this one is that the initial approach to HMRC is crucial as is having te information ready to give them on a timely basis. Your accountant will also know what you can and can't claim here. Their fees are also tax allowable against profits

Don't forget its not just your income from IT work but any other income such as share dividends, rental income, bank interest for example. Also details of pension payments made would be relevant

Be aware that any commercially savvy accountant will want at least some funds up front for this type of work

Also do brace yourself for a large tax bill - 10 years of even relatively small profits will add up substantially io am afraid

An average £10k taxable profit for example over 10 years could be around £3k tax and National insurance per year plus interest and any penalties. A £50k total bill could easily be in the realms taking those figures into account purely as an example

Not saying that to scare you but a reality check certainly is required for most clients who come in with a back tax case as bad as this

Good luck

I've just submitted tax returns for a new client who came to me in a similar mess, his started from the 06-07 return. My fee was £350 per year for this. His affairs were possibly a bit trickier as he had no records whatsoever for 3 years, so I was going back to his customers to get his charges to him - luckily he only had 5 during this time. If necessary I was going to Data Protection Act them but it was not necessary.

In your position I would take your records for the past 6 years along to various local accountants and compare their suggested approaches, how you get along and fee quotes during their free initial consultations. Some will no doubt insist on going back to 2000, some will perhaps be more commercial than this and suggest going back 6 years, and so on. Some will be pedantic about having every single receipt and invoice, those you can ignore - inevitably there will be some element of incomplete records here, so you want someone who can deal sensibly and cheaply with this and piece together the missing bits of the jigsaw from those bits which you still have.

I would definitely not advise having an "online" accountant for this, even if the fees one offers are much cheaper. This is not a "box standard" job and you need someone you can meet with and come to a common understanding with. Not me as I am in the Lake District!

And yes there is a risk HMRC will trigger an enquiry but it's a risk you've got to run. Also they are in such a mess that just doing the easy peasy stuff is hard for them right now, so unless the database flags up the gap you are safe. To do this, it will have to marry up your PAYE and self-assessment records. It can only do that using an NI number - here is a hint, a self-assessment submission does not require an NI number but you can include it as on option.