Self Assessment income optional?

tarloweh

Might be a daft question but currently filling in my Self Assessment online, i am self employed and for the income part all the boxes are labelled "(Optional)" such as turnover, expenses etc. Does this mean i do not need to enter any income details for the return? otherwise why is it labeled optional? - https://imgur.com/a/Id21ddk

AnotherJoe

What happens if you put zero as opposed to blank? Does it put up an error message?
I'm interested as next year will be my first year having to do the same, no income from employment.

tarloweh

I actually do have income, just realised i don't have to calculate it. It seems as though two boxes require to be either blank or above 0 - https://imgur.com/a/otmlJSO https://imgur.com/a/rTvTYq2

Pennywise

There are two parts of the self employment section. You can choose to enter the full figures, ie analyse all expenses etc or choose to submit what used to be called "3 line accounts" in a different section, being just turnover, expenses, profits. You need to fill in one section or the other, not both.

tarloweh

Just when through the whole form again, i did not enter my income anywhere, i think the reason for this may be because i have already entered my income in the Working Tax Credits renewal form. Submitted my return anyhow.

Dazed_and_confused

You are going to create a lot of issues for yourself if you leave things like this.

You have now told Tax Credits you had some self employment income and told Self Assessment you had no self employed income.

Expect to be investigated by HMRC over the course of the next few months.

tarloweh

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

You are going to create a lot of issues for yourself if you leave things like this.

You have now told Tax Credits you had some self employment income and told Self Assessment you had no self employed income.

Expect to be investigated by HMRC over the course of the next few months.

No, i did not tell Self Assessment i had no self employed income, i just left the box blank because it was marked optional.

Dazed_and_confused

Which means you have filed a return with no self employed income.

Pennywise has explained why those boxes are optional. One section or the other should be completed.

Easy pickings for HMRC.

I wouldn't be convinced your explanation would mitigate any penalties they might choose to apply for careless behaviour (assuming there is actually a tax loss).