Self Assesment advice

vetstudent

Hi, I have a small online business and this time last year I had an accountants do my self assesment so have never done it before. My earnings were tiny for the year I need to do the tax return for now, so I want to do it myself. I have just registered on the site, and I tihnk it means I have to wait 7 days now for a activation code to come in the post? Is there anything I can do until then as I know I have left it a bit late? Thank you for any help

Old_Git

just get all your details together ,income ,expenditure ect and wait .

Ainsley1

You can always pay for a Tax assessment program rather than use the HMRC version - such as Taxcalc which I find excellent (can be bought and downloaded online for about £25 I think). Not sure if it is any better or worse than the HMRC one (but I can guess) and you can then prepare in advance and then just upload to HMRC for electronic submission and a record of such when your gateway paperwork comes through and you have registered fully.

That particular programme (there are others) complies with HMRC requirements, will be useful as it keeps most data ready for next year and has a lots of help files and links about tax. It was originally developed for Which? the consumers association. It is a great help to starting self assessment.

That approach (perhaps others have program recommendations too) will avoid leaving all the work to the last minute. Old Gits advice is good too but you may be wondering what records/info you need to assemble! Programs can help in this respect too.

Ainsley1

Funny, I seem to have posted an answer to a non existent question......must be going daft!
...so I've deleted it!