Tax Return - Going it alone this yer - any advise..

itsnowtime

Hi everyone,

I work full time and run a small business alongside which I have done since 2003.

Now.. I've always used an accountant to fill out my tax return but the cost of his fees increase year on year and the business hasn't made huge amounts of money. As I'm currently in the process of managing my money and paying off my debt I wanted to see if I could do it myself.

So.. this year I've decided to register to fill my tax return in online and do my accounts etc.. myself.

Anyone got any tips and advise they'd like to share about what I should and shouldn't do?

Thanks all

talkinpeace

Print out last year's return.
Print out last year's accounts.
Print out last year's cash book.
See how the accountant got from one to the other to the other and what was put where on the return.
If it makes sense to you, copy the principles.
If it doesn't, stick with the accountant.

System

Find out if your local HMRC Business Support team are running any FREE workshops and go on one. Two courses come to mind -

Becoming self-employed and

SA for the self-employed

These 2 courses are very usefull and the second gives you very clear instuctions on how to complete a tax return.

david69_2

I've done mine before and i think once you make time to do it its not too bad .
A good piece of advice from talkinpeace to copy all of last years returns and paperwork because you can soon forget what to do.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

was going to try the online way myself, and had a look at the demo.

Does anyone know if you can submit Capital Gains info, as I didn't see a supplementary form for that in the demo.

Just curious, before I go to the bother of registering.

Thanks.

Debt_Free_Chick

itsnowtime wrote: »

So.. this year I've decided to register to fill my tax return in online and do my accounts etc.. myself.

Anyone got any tips and advise they'd like to share about what I should and shouldn't do?

What kind of records do you keep? Paper? Spreadsheet? Sage or similar?

Is this for 2006/2007? If so, you'll need to get your skates on! You could have little to do .... or rather a lot, depending on they way you keep your records.

itsnowtime

I'm quite organised and keep all my records anyway which I breakdown for the accountant which is why I decided to go it alone.

All he appears to do is audit the accounts and then fill out my form. I'm in the middle of it all now - want to get it done before I return back to work next week.

All I need to do is make sure I claim a % of phone etc... and not the full amount I'll be checking the hmrc web to see what's acceptable.

Thanks

Debt_Free_Chick

The thing to watch is ......

For your business accounts, you show all the expenses of running the business. However, some of them may not be allowable for tax purposes. So once you have your business accounts drawn up, you need to transpose these to your tax return. And then show the amounts that are not allowable.

e.g. your business accounts may show an expense for depreciation of assets - as that's a true and accurate expense, for accounting purposes. However, depreciation is not allowable as a tax deduction. You need to claim capital allowances instead. To claim capital allowances, you need to know the "pool" brought forward from last year.

Re the telephone ...... you could use last year's %age as a guide.

talkinpeace

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