Recommended HMRC self assessment software?

Nailer99

Hi forum,

My self assessment return is quite complicated this year, with a combination of PAYE and self-employment, and with an income very close to the threshold where you lose all government childcare support. I therefore need to be very careful not to exceed that threshold, or I will lose a *lot* of money. 

The situation is not complicated enough (nor do I have enough spare money!) to justify an accountant, so I would like to find software that allows me to calculate my full tax return *before the end of the tax year*, allowing me to check that everything is in order, and in particular to check that my net adjusted income calculations are correct, as once the year end has passed, net adjusted income cannot be changed.

Do forumites have any software recommendations for self assessment software? In particular I am looking for something which will allow me to enter all my income details, will calculate the income tax and national insurance due and will correctly calculate net adjusted income. It can't be too expensive (or I'd be better off paying off an accountant!) and it must be 99.9999% reliable in its calculations. 

Thanks!

MattMattMattUK

I am not sure about the software, but surely the easiest solution is to build a spreadsheet? 

Nailer99

Hi Matt, I’ve done that, but a spreadsheet doesn’t satisfy my criterion of being 99.999% chance of being correct!

In an ideal world I’d just use HMRC’s self assessment calculation but you can only use that after financial year end. Basically I want software that mimics the functionality of HMRC self assessment. 

anselld

How are you planning to make adjustments?  Pension contributions?  Stop working? Charity?

Either way it is not a massive cliff edge.  You need to get it wrong by £10,000 to lose all child benefit.  Getting it wrong by a few hundred quid will be trivial.  If you are that worried leave a few hundred quid margin to be safe.

Nailer99

@anselld: All of the above, but mainly pension. 

I’m not at the child benefit threshold, I’m at the other one, where you lose the childcare subsidy for nursery fees. This threshold is a cliff edge and I would have to pay more than £8.5k back to the UKGov if I get it wrong! Hence wanting to run the calculations in advance. 

Pennywise

Unfortunately, most tax software isn't released until the end of the tax year as they're aimed at being "compliance" solutions (filing) rather than planning solutions.  The only "planning" one I know of is Taxpert from Absolute tax which is a 100% reliable planning tool, but isn't a filing one.  Not cheap, but it does the job.

https://www.absolutetax.co.uk/products/absolute-taxpert-tax-planning-apps

Nailer99

Thank you! I’ll check that out. 

My Googling also uncovered https://www.gosimpletax.com/ which has a free trial I can play with. 

Hopefully one of these will do what I need. 

karie

Couldn’t you enter all the details and see what the hmrc site spits out? You wouldn’t have to submit it necessarily? 

[Deleted User]

karie said:

Couldn’t you enter all the details and see what the hmrc site spits out? You wouldn’t have to submit it necessarily? 

Not for a current year - which is what the op would like to pursue.

Grumpy_chap

Nailer99 said:

My self assessment return is quite complicated this year

The situation is not complicated enough (nor do I have enough spare money!) to justify an accountant, 

There is a contradiction.
It may be worth considering an Accountant for the peace-of-mind.  It may not be as expensive as you imagine.  The Accountancy costs (or at least part of the cost) may be able to be offset against your self-employed income as a business expense, thus reducing ANI and taxation liability.
An Accountant will also ensure you have taken any opportunities to reduce ANI that you may not have been aware.

Nailer99 said:

I’m not at the child benefit threshold, I’m at the other one, where you lose the childcare subsidy for nursery fees. This threshold is a cliff edge and I would have to pay more than £8.5k back to the UKGov if I get it wrong! Hence wanting to run the calculations in advance. 

At that threshold, you are also at risk of the personal allowance withdrawal if you end up on the higher side.
The simple thing is to simply make enough extra pension contributions so that you are a good margin, say £5k, below the threshold then any small error in the advance calculation and planning is not a major concern.  That assumes you have sufficient Annual Allowance (plus carry-forward) available to make that level of pension contribution.

Alternatively, and you have not said what your self-employed business is, are there any business expenses / investment that you could sensibly justify that are meeting the need of the business?  IT upgrade?  Tools?  Electric Vehicle?

The only thing is, anything to reduce your ANI, pension, business investment items, working fewer hours, gift aid donations all reduce available money and would contradict your statement that "nor do I have enough spare money".  I can't understand how you can have that level of income that these concerns are genuine considerations and not have ample spare money, but you say that is the case and that presents the challenge that anything to reduce ANI is using the spare money that you do not have.

Nailer99 said:

Do forumites have any software recommendations for self assessment software? In particular I am looking for something which will allow me to enter all my income details, will calculate the income tax and national insurance due and will correctly calculate net adjusted income. It can't be too expensive (or I'd be better off paying off an accountant!) and it must be 99.9999% reliable in its calculations. 

Like others suggest, a spreadsheet is the best tool on the cheaper side of an Accountant. 
In fact, do the spreadsheet first to see where you are and the baseline position. 
If you went to an Accountant, you'd need to have collated all the information to share with them and, at that point, you could share the spreadsheet you already prepared for a quick review
You don't need to be 99.9999% certain of the answer if you go for a solution that is far enough away from the threshold to accommodate small errors or last minute events that were not anticipated.