Tax Return During Bankruptcy

standalone

I had been self employed until my bankruptcy earlier on in 2015, on the date I was made bankrupt I stopped trading as self employed and got a job right away paying my income tax on PAYE.
My query is what should I do regarding my self assessment which is due on the 31 Jan 16.
My accountant I used while I was self employed has been in touch telling me I need to employ him to complete my tax return for the period up to my bankruptcy date and for him to do this will cost me £750.00 which I could do well without having to pay out at this time.

Has anyone any knowledge what is best to do here, as any tax owed will be included in the bankruptcy it seems a waste of £750.00 paid out to an accountant to prepare accounts on this occasion, however I do not want to get this wrong and have HRMC on by back and sending me letters.

elljay

I was in your position this time last year. You don't need an accountant, you can do it yourself. It's all online with lots of handholding and you can do it in bite sized chunks and come back to it when you feel like it. I did mine, submitted it, received tax rebate (due to losses in the business which was why I was bankrupt). I notified my OR about the tax rebate, handed it all over to the IS, job done.

You do need to ensure you're registered to do online tax returns in plenty of time for them to send you a password etc in the post, so if not already done, I would get on with that now.

I will be doing the same for the return due before Jan 31 2016. I've done half of it, it's a bit of a pain but all comes together in the end. I've been self employed but like you, also PAYE, and doing my returns for years and years without an accountant. It's only the past couple of years that the business went belly-up!

EJ