Terrified by tax bill! Can I claim for 2013-14 losses

jezbutler

Hi

Okay - maybe I should have an accountant, but certain fields on the online SE form are quite hard to understand. Due to a freak lump sum for work carried out in my first year of trading (2011-12), I'm now faced with a large tax bill. his year (2012-13), I have made a huge loss and am going to find it hard to pay this. On the form, there is a line:

Any 2013-14 repayment you are claiming now

Can I make a claim based on a projection of this years loss? If so, do I simply place the assumed loss value here?

Yours hopefully

Jez

Caz3121

have you made any payments towards 2013-14 tax that you can claim repayment of?

jezbutler

Thanks Caz. No - I was hoping I'd be allowed to somehow offset my tax against this years loss. Am I barking up the wrong tree?

purdyoaten

Caz3121 wrote: »

have you made any payments towards 2013-14 tax that you can claim repayment of?

Surely the first one is not due until 31st January?

I am a little confused by the first post.

The first year of trading was large.

2013/14 looks like a loss according to the op.

What is the situation for 2012/13 which needs to be filed by the end of the month? Can we have some idea of figures for all three years?

purdyoaten

Is it possible jez, that you made a good profit 2011/12, no profit 2012/13 and it is the payments on account for 2012/13 (paid January and July 2013) that you are looking to claim back?

jezbutler

Thanks - that's correct. I don't know if it's possible, but was wondering if I could somehow use my 2012-13 loss to reduce my 2011-12 bill, du at the end of thi month.

It might be a silly question, but thought I'd check.

twig1_2

Are you set up as a limited company

jezbutler

Hi

No, just sole trader. It turns out that rather than making a loss, my profit for 2013-14 will be around 3000, whereas 2012-12 was around the 12000 mark. So I have a bill of around 3400 to pay, and my bank balance is quite low as I now take a wage. Do you think if I ask nicely I'll be able to spread the payment somehow.

Cheers

Jez

pcgtron

So basically you've spent your tax money rather than saving it. You might be lucky and hmrc allow you to installation payment it but would it not be better to put it aside in future

jimmo

If you are going to get any useful advice here I think you really need to get your own act together and come to terms with tax years.
This year is 2013/14 which ends on 5 April 2014.
Last year was 2012/13 which ended on 5 April 2013.
The year before that was 2011/12 which ended on 5 April 2012
From your posts my guess would be that you made a significant profit in your first year of trading which was 2011/12 but the tax due for that year was payable on 31 January 2013 and, if you haven’t paid that yet, your tax affairs are in a terrible mess because HMRC will have been chasing you for money for the last 12 months.
If you made a loss in 2012/13 then no new tax will be payable on 31 January 2014 so HMRC are not going to be chasing you for any more money than they already are.
There are, at least, 2 possible opportunities for you to set losses from one year of trading against an earlier year’s profits.
Those are under Section 64 and Section 72 ITA 2007.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM85010.htm
However the choice of which option would be better for you depends on whether I have interpreted your situation correctly and whatever other income you have received.
This is quite complicated stuff but if you can get the basics right I think you can get an awful lot of help here but if you already owe tax for 2011/12 and can’t really follow what I have written you would be far better to find yourself an accountant to sort it out for you.

Cook_County

You might want to explore changing your accounting date so that the first accounting period is 18 months or longer so that you get the benefit of the loss.

You might be a farmer or an author and be able to average your income if you are.