New Sole Trader - SA Help!

unreal83

Afternoon everyone

I have recently registered my business for SA and have received my activation code etc - just logged on and started to go through the motions even though I only officially started trading on 1st January.

It asked me for my details of the year 2012/2013 when I was employed by 2 different companies in that year (alternatively) so I entered my pay details and the tax I paid in those 2 different jobs.

I did wonder if I had to do it by 31st January because I've only just started trading but I would rather be safe than sorry. Anyway it mentioned nothing about this tax year (13/14 which I know isn't over yet) so I submitted it as there was no more information to give and it told me I was owed £1800 in over paid tax.

Can someone tell me what I should be doing - I really dont have a clue.

Can I claim VAT back on purchases? Its only a little cake business and I doubt I am going to make much money this year. Just want to do everything right.


Thanks in advance.

00ec25

others can answer your question about you £1,800 figure although if you had 2 jobs in 12/13 it is very possible that when you moved to the second job the wrong tax code was applied (eg it ended in M1) resulting in you paying too much tax until the code was corrected (if it ever has been of course!)

as regards VAT you cannot claim the VAT back on purchases unless you are registered for VAT

if your turnover is more than £79,000 on a rolling 12 months basis then it is compulsory to register

if less than that you can register voluntarily but you must then charge VAT on you sales. If you are selling to non VAT registered customers then obviously that means your prices just went up and they may not like that!
So voluntary registration needs to be carefully worked out to see if its worthwhile, although a very rough rule of thumb is if you are trading at a profit then basically you will pay more VAT on sales than you will recover on purchases

CLAPTON

unreal83 wrote: »

Afternoon everyone

I have recently registered my business for SA and have received my activation code etc - just logged on and started to go through the motions even though I only officially started trading on 1st January.

It asked me for my details of the year 2012/2013 when I was employed by 2 different companies in that year (alternatively) so I entered my pay details and the tax I paid in those 2 different jobs.

I did wonder if I had to do it by 31st January because I've only just started trading but I would rather be safe than sorry. Anyway it mentioned nothing about this tax year (13/14 which I know isn't over yet) so I submitted it as there was no more information to give and it told me I was owed £1800 in over paid tax.

Can someone tell me what I should be doing - I really dont have a clue.

Can I claim VAT back on purchases? Its only a little cake business and I doubt I am going to make much money this year. Just want to do everything right.


Thanks in advance.

if you have only started trading in Jan 2014 then you don't need to complete your return until end jan 2015 and you can't even start until april 2014

were you SE in the tax year 2012-13? if not why are you filling anything in?

purdyoaten

unreal83 wrote: »

Afternoon everyone

I have recently registered my business for SA and have received my activation code etc - just logged on and started to go through the motions even though I only officially started trading on 1st January.

It asked me for my details of the year 2012/2013 when I was employed by 2 different companies in that year (alternatively) so I entered my pay details and the tax I paid in those 2 different jobs.

I did wonder if I had to do it by 31st January because I've only just started trading but I would rather be safe than sorry. Anyway it mentioned nothing about this tax year (13/14 which I know isn't over yet) so I submitted it as there was no more information to give and it told me I was owed £1800 in over paid tax.

Can someone tell me what I should be doing - I really dont have a clue.

Can I claim VAT back on purchases? Its only a little cake business and I doubt I am going to make much money this year. Just want to do everything right.


Thanks in advance.

Did you receive a notice to file a return for 2012/13? If not - there is no requirement as Clapton says. However, if you are owed £1800 and you are sure of your entries, obviously it would be prudent to file.

unreal83

Thanks everyone. I didn't need to file a return, all sorted now; it's really confusing though!

Lauren :-)