Tax return for partnership... which software?

mamamoi

I have been putting off this dreaded task, but time is ticking and I need to file my first tax return.

Brief background: My husband & I started our own part time counselling / coaching / hypnotherapy etc business. We have registered as a partnership and our first tax return is due before end Jan '11. This is just a sideline for us, so it's not generated tons of money, just a bit of extra cash.

I have just been on the HMRC website and it says that we have to purchase commercial software package to do our self assessment online. Does anyone have any recommendations of a good, cheap and user friendly software package? Really feel overwhelmed when I look at all the options and just want to get it over and done with!

Also, Can we put all the profits under my name to pay less tax (I work p/t and DH works f/t in other employment, so I would pay less taxes).

Many Thanks in advance!

antrobus

mamamoi wrote: »

I have just been on the HMRC website and it says that we have to purchase commercial software package to do our self assessment online.

No you don't. See here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/software.htm and look under the section 'What's covered by the HMRC free online service'.

mamamoi wrote: »

Can we put all the profits under my name to pay less tax (I work p/t and DH works f/t in other employment, so I would pay less taxes).

No, it's a partnership. Your profits will be split 50:50, or in whatever proportion specified in the partnership agreement.

mamamoi

Thanks for your advice and the link

antrobus wrote: »

No you don't. See here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/software.htm and look under the section 'What's covered by the HMRC free online service'..

what is the difference between the free one and commercial one.... there is one listed under the free list for
Partnership - to report the income you receive as a partner

and then one under the commercial one
SA800 - Partnership Tax Return

what is the difference?

antrobus wrote: »

No, it's a partnership. Your profits will be split 50:50, or in whatever proportion specified in the partnership agreement.

as we are a married couple we dont really have an official partnership agreement, so could we do whatever split is more beneficial?

antrobus

mamamoi wrote: »

what is the difference between the free one and commercial one.... there is one listed under the free list for
Partnership - to report the income you receive as a partner, and then one under the commercial one SA800 - Partnership Tax Return

Oh I see, I'm sorry. You didn't submit the paper SA800 Partnership return by 31 October, and now you're lumbered having to do the online version. Yes you have to buy something. Part of the problem would be that a lot of the software listed by HMRC is designed for use by agents and priced accordingly. For individual partnerships, I think the cheapest is PA2000 by QMS which is a tenner but that's an Excel addon thing, so only works if you have MS Excel. The others are Andica which is about £15 and Legatio which is £30 but does the individual SA100s as well. They'll all do the job.

(Because you've got a partnership you have to do a tax return for the partnership (SA800) in addition to your individual tax returns (SA 100s)

mamamoi wrote: »

as we are a married couple we dont really have an official partnership agreement, so could we do whatever split is more beneficial?

So long as you agree the split, I believe that you can do what you like. In fact I think you can change it year on year if you want.

supermonkey

I've started running TAS Basics which is free. It seems very good to me!

ChristineL

This is exactly the question I was going to post today as I was wondering about the best software to use this year. I'm no expert but I've been in a partnership for the last 5 years. So here's my advice to mamamoi:

- the partnership has to fill in the SA800. This says the costs, income and profit of the partnership; who the partners are; and how the profit is split between the partners.

- you can spilt the profit however you like between the partners.

- the deadline for completing the paper version of the SA800 was 31 Oct (yes I missed it too:(). So since we need to do it online we have to buy a piece of software to do it. There isn't a free one for this.

- a couple of years ago I bought Andica but had problems with downloading the software. The company were snowed under and their techie people didn't get back to me. Since the deadline was fast approaching, I bought Legatio as well.

- Legatio was a bit clunky but did the job. Andica later apologised to me and I got a full refunded of my money.

- Once you've completed your partnership SA800, the partners have to declare the income with their personal Self Assessment using the SA104 form.


Supermonkey suggests TAS Basic - sorry but this is not a product that can be used to submit the online SA800.

Hope that helps. If anyone has experience this year with one of the simple (cheap!) software packages please let us know.

antrobus

supermonkey wrote: »

I've started running TAS Basics which is free. It seems very good to me!

TAS is a very good accounts package, but (as noted above) it doesn't do tax returns.

mamamoi

Thanks to everyone for their advice, starting to feel a little bit clearer now! But can I just clarify....

for the partnership we have to do the SA800 (and need to buy software to submit online as we missed the paper deadline.
Then, do we have both have to do individual self assessments? And can we do these on the hmrc website for free?

As Christinel has also mentioned If anyone has experience this year with one of the simple (cheap!) software packages please let us know

Many thanks

ChristineL

You've got it right:
<<for the partnership we have to do the SA800>> YES
<<(and need to buy software to submit online as we missed the paper deadline.>>YES
<<Then, do we have both have to do individual self assessments?>>YES
<<And can we do these on the hmrc website for free?>>YES

ChristineL

Well I went ahead and bought the Andica software. So far I've done 75% of our return (we just need to cross check a couple of figures then we can complete and submit it). I've found it easy to set up and reasonably easy to use - reading the very detailed manual has actually taken longer than using it! And it doesn't need Excel.

martindow

I've also just used Andica and found it worked fine. Don't leave it too late - I needed to get a new account set up on the Gateway site which involves having an activation code posted out. I couldn't submit the info to HMRC via my personal account.