Late tax return penalty & working abroad

reciveigonerepeat

Right so here goes.

Brief summary
I have mismanaged my tax affairs, i'm a total novice. The last payment or communication I had with HMRC was in Jan 31st 2016 when I paid them for 2014/2015 as a sole trader whilst I was in New Zealand. I have to had a comunciation nor submitted any documents since then until I received a late payment letter last week.

Bellow is a timeline of events.

* Between the 6th of April 2015 to August 2015 I earned under £13000 ( which I think is under my personal allowance, sorry please forgive my ignorance )
* I left the UK in August 2015 I went travelling for and I was not working.
*I then arrived in New Zealand in December 2015 and I became a full time employee in March 2016 up until June 2016.
*Now I never told HMRC I was working in New Zealand.
*I was paid into an Kiwi bank account with a Kiwi NI number.
*Nor did I tell them I'd stopped being a sole trader/working in the uk ( I had only been doing it a year at time, hence my stupidity )
* I returned to the uk due to a death in the family in August.
* Between August 2016 and now I have had two jobs both with full time contracts and both should of been paying my tax.
* Last week I received a letter from HRMC saying my Tax return for the 5 of April 2016 was not sent in on time. Because of this a £100 fee is payable please submit your tax return etc. please pay within 30 days.

Now I understand this is a life lesson and this year starting 2017 i've been doing my expenses and tax's on Xero after each job as PAYEE. But I need help from you guys to put this behind me so it does'nt bite me in the a.s.s!!

Sorry I know this is confusing. Any reassurance and help would be greatly appreciated. I really want to get my house in order. I'm really quite worried.

Best Wishes,

A young idiot who needs some guidance

TheCyclingProgrammer

The first thing you need to do is submit a tax return.

Darksparkle

As said, the first thing you need to do is the tax return otherwise penalties will continue.

The personal tax allowance for 2015/16 was £10,600. There'd also be class 2 and 4 NIC. You'll also need to declare any income received in New Zealand before April 2016.