Filling in my first tax return

dllive

Hi,
Ive been freelance (as well as working full time for an employer) for 3 years. The past 2 years Ive used accountants, but they charge around £250. Im very methodical with my accounts because they are very simple - I keep a spreadsheet recording income and outgoings. I cant justify paying the accountants £250 for taking my figures and - in effect - pasting them into HMRC's online assessment form, so this year Ive decided to do it myself.

Needless to say - looking at the self assessment form - I have questions. Someone told me that I could phone HMRC for help in filling my self assessment form in. Is that correct? I think I have everything to hand (P60, income/outgoing figures etc...), its just a case of filling in the correct figures in the correct boxes.

Maybe paying an accountant £250 is worth it! Id be interested in hearing from anyone that fills in their self assessment forms.
Thanks

PlutoinCapricorn

This point has been discussed many times in the past!

I do my own returns, but I have time to spare and am not buying and selling on a large scale. I don't need special advice because I have a lot of disposable income either.

I have a spreadsheet with three pages. One page is for expenses, including running costs on a month by month basis; one is income on a month by month basis; one is totals ready for transfer to the return, including my estimate of tax due.

Are you earning under approx. £60,000? If so, HMRC just want three figures: total self employment income, legitimate expenses and profit.
You will also need to input any other taxable income in the relevant section.

HMRC do free courses in completing tax returns.

dllive

Hi PlutoinCapricorn,

It sounds like we have similar spreadsheets - although yours sounds a bit more comprehensive as it includes "totals ready for transfer to the return, including my estimate of tax due".

After doing this for a couple of years Ive realised a few things that I take into account such as not being able to claim for car expenses in addition to fuel expenses - and because my fuel expenses are always more I discard the car expenses figure.

In answer to your question: I am earning under £60k. However, things are made a bit more complicated because I also have a fulltime job too (I actually had 2 in that tax year). Im so concerned that Im not going to fill something in correctly and that Ill get investigated!

I feel that my self assessment form could be filled in quite quickly - if only I had someone sat next to me giving a guiding hand. Ill have a look for those HMRC courses you mention.

PlutoinCapricorn

Why not go for it! Surely you can get copies of the previous returns?

Filing online is by far the best way: you only submit when you are satisfied that you have got it right, and even then you can make amendments. I like to work out the tax due in advance: there is usually a tiny difference that is probably EXCEL rounding.

You will be asked a series of yes/no questions about all the possible sources of income: PAYE, self employment, benefits, interest, share dealing etc and you need to have relevant documents e.g. P60 at hand. If you have two PAYE jobs,, then complete 2 entries in this section.

There are two boxes, one for the total picture and one for self employment, where you can put explanations that should stop unnecessary investigations. The reasons for any sharp rises/drops in income or expenses are the sort of thing that go here. If you are not earning enough to live on, explain here how you are managing.

dllive

Thanks. Im so concerned of making a mistake. I have the HMRC help line number now, so Ill phone them after work this week.

I did see a couple of boxes to put "further explanations" but didnt know what to put in there. The income/expenses have stayed relatively the same for each year, although Im spending a lot more on fuel now - I was doing about 5000 miles, now its more like 8000. Is that excessive? Every journey I measure the mileage using Google Maps, but other than that I have no way of proving I did that mileage! Maybe I should mention that in the "further explanations" box.

PlutoinCapricorn

It is not compulsory to fill in the boxes, if the only thing that has changed is that you are doing it yourself.

On this subject, be sure to inform HMRC that the accountants no longer have the authority to deal with your affairs, otherwise rebates might go to them and they would charge you an admin fee.

You have until January 31st 2013 to submit, although leaving it to the last minute is not advised.

You can take that course and ask specific questions on here. HMRC's website has a lot of useful information.