Personal accountant?

musehead

I am 23 and have never had a "proper" job, however I have won quite a bit of money through gambling the last few years. Gambling winnings are tax free in the UK so none of it has been declared. I'm pretty much expecting to be investigated by HMRC at some point when they notice i'm earning interest on a significant sum despite not having a job.

I have 10+ interest paying savings accounts as well as hundreds of pages of bank statements etc. It's gonna be a bit of a nightmare just for myself this year filling in a claim for repayment form (all my taxable income is savings interest and trust fund income so i'm always owed some tax back).

I'm wondering if it would be worth hiring some kind of personal accountant to get all my finances in order with repect to interest that needs to be declared etc? No doubt it would be much easier to handle an investigation with their help also. I'm worried about making mistakes if I do it all myself which HMRC might pick up on.

Any idea how much this kind of service might cost?

Pennywise

I can't see why you have a problem. Just ask each bank for a certificate of interest and tax deducted - they are legally obliged to provide you with it. You don't have to wade through the bank statements to find the information. Anyway, if you aren't liable for tax, you should be signing and giving each bank a R85 form so that you get interest gross.

I can't really see it is a good use of an accountant's time (and therefore your money) to have to wade through a load of paperwork. If anything, if you can't be bothered to sort out paperwork yourself, you'd be better getting a freelance book-keeper or PA at a fraction of the cost to file it properly for you and do whatever analysis/summaries you may need.

Also, make sure that you have documentary evidence of your gambling winnings. HMRC have heard it all before and won't just "take your word for it" - you need to keep some basic records as to dates, amounts, etc., and as much paperwork as possible to support.

By all means, think about getting an accountant, but get one for the right reasons - i.e. tax planning, wealth creation, etc., not for basic admin work.

musehead

Thanks, I do have a spreadsheet of all the gambling transactions (well most - I lost the first few months) but they are undated and we are talking about thousands of individual transactions over the last few years. I could make a dated summary of the large wins or something, but does anyone know how much detail HMRC would likely require? Would they want every single penny accounted for (which would require a very very long time going through statements etc) or would they be happy in seeing lots of gambling transactions and no other significant incomings or outgoings?

Presumably a deposit and withdrawal from "ladbrokes" on my bank statement, for example, would be all the proof they require that a gambling win took place. There's no other documentary evidence apart from statements from these sites, but most of these only go back weeks/months and are no longer obtainable.

johnllew

musehead wrote: »

I have won quite a bit of money through gambling the last few years.

Is it gambling or matched betting?

musehead

It's gambling. Not irresponsible gambling though.