Self Employed Tax Returns

RaZ_3

Hi all.

Wanted some advice if you please

Im a self employed builder (but no reg company), and have been for the past 3yrs, i have had an accountant fill in and do my tax returns, but due to the cost i've decided to do it myself (for the first time!) .

Im going to do it online, i have reg, and got all the login details i require.

What i want to know is, how much am i allowed to put down as expenses, without receipts ( i.e petrol, tools etc) im not very good at keeping things like that.
And am i liking to encounter any problems doing the self assesment my self?

Many thanks in advance for any help given

Pennywise

RaZ wrote: »

What i want to know is, how much am i allowed to put down as expenses, without receipts ( i.e petrol, tools etc) im not very good at keeping things like that.

You can only claim the amounts that you have spent on the business. Most people would keep receipts as that is the easiest way, but the tax inspector will usually allow other forms of proof, i.e. payments appearing on a credit card statement, or debit card payments appearing on your bank statement, etc. Without any proof at all, you won't be successful in claiming anything except the smallest of items. Despite what many people think, providing evidence of expense is the only way of making a successful claim. If you ever got a tax investigation, not having receipts would be a surefire way of being landed with a huge tax bill. When doing self employed accounts and SA tax return, you need some decent book-keeping well supported by documentary proof to support the entries.

System

RaZ wrote: »

Hi all.
What i want to know is, how much am i allowed to put down as expenses, without receipts ( i.e petrol, tools etc) im not very good at keeping things like that.
And am i liking to encounter any problems doing the self assesment my self?

1. How did your accountant do your returns if you didn't have receipts for him.

2. If you are going to do it yourself it is usually straight forward. However if you have claimed capital allowances in the past you need to get the previous years figures from your accountant (assuming you don't have them) so that you can continue to claim them this year.

Debt_Free_Chick

Pennywise wrote: »

You can only claim the amounts that you have spent on the business. Most people would keep receipts as that is the easiest way, but the tax inspector will usually allow other forms of proof, i.e. payments appearing on a credit card statement, or debit card payments appearing on your bank statement, etc. Without any proof at all, you won't be successful in claiming anything except the smallest of items. Despite what many people think, providing evidence of expense is the only way of making a successful claim. If you ever got a tax investigation, not having receipts would be a surefire way of being landed with a huge tax bill. When doing self employed accounts and SA tax return, you need some decent book-keeping well supported by documentary proof to support the entries.

Being really picky here - apologies. You don't actually need to prove anything to do your tax return and claim your expenses. No checking is done at this stage. It's only IF HMRC decide to investigate that you need to prove that you spent what you claimed you'd spent.

So - if you have no receipts and no other proof of expenditure it's a risk - a risk that the claim will be denied IF HMRC investigate. If you are comfortable with that risk AND the claim is genuine, then you can claim the expense without the proof.