Self Employment and Self Tax Return - my deadline to submit tax

RKO1

I started my first self employment work day 

3rd April 2024.

When do I need to submit my taxes by? When will my deadline be?

DullGreyGuy

Tax year ends on the 5th April and so in principle you'd have a tax return to do for the 3 days in the 2023/2024 year which would need to be submitted and paid by the end of Jan 2025 however presumably you trading in those three days was less than £1,000 revenue and so can get a pass for that year. If it was £1,000 or more then you will have to do it 

RKO1

DullGreyGuy said:

Tax year ends on the 5th April and so in principle you'd have a tax return to do for the 3 days in the 2023/2024 year which would need to be submitted and paid by the end of Jan 2025 however presumably you trading in those three days was less than £1,000 revenue and so can get a pass for that year. If it was £1,000 or more then you will have to do it 

Thank you for your message. My earning in those 3 days was less than £1000. So if I pass when will my actual deadline be?

DullGreyGuy

Jan 2026 - they're only done once a year and always by January,  but you'll need to register for self assessment by September/October 2025 (cannot remember off hand, its been a while)

RKO1

DullGreyGuy said:

Jan 2026 - they're only done once a year and always by January,  but you'll need to register for self assessment by September/October 2025 (cannot remember off hand, its been a while)

Yes I registered this week for the UTR. I read online it advises people to do their tax return early. I don't understand what they mean by early. Surely you'd want to wait a month before the Jan deadline so you can create a decent amount of time to do a tax return?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

RKO1 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Jan 2026 - they're only done once a year and always by January,  but you'll need to register for self assessment by September/October 2025 (cannot remember off hand, its been a while)

Yes I registered this week for the UTR. I read online it advises people to do their tax return early. I don't understand what they mean by early. Surely you'd want to wait a month before the Jan deadline so you can create a decent amount of time to do a tax return?

You have ~9 months to complete the return but a surprising number of people leave it to the last minute.  Doing it a month before the deadline would be fine, no reason to panic on the last day.

If you registered as self employed using the date of 3 April 2024 don't be surprised if you are asked to complete a return for 2023-24.

Do not ignore it.

RKO1

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

RKO1 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Jan 2026 - they're only done once a year and always by January,  but you'll need to register for self assessment by September/October 2025 (cannot remember off hand, its been a while)

Yes I registered this week for the UTR. I read online it advises people to do their tax return early. I don't understand what they mean by early. Surely you'd want to wait a month before the Jan deadline so you can create a decent amount of time to do a tax return?

You have ~9 months to complete the return but a surprising number of people leave it to the last minute.  Doing it a month before the deadline would be fine, no reason to panic on the last day.

If you registered as self employed using the date of 3 April 2024 don't be surprised if you are asked to complete a return for 2023-24.

Do not ignore it.

So would I need to process two tax returns? 1 day for the work I did before 5th April 2023/2024 and another for 2024/2025?

DullGreyGuy

RKO1 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Jan 2026 - they're only done once a year and always by January,  but you'll need to register for self assessment by September/October 2025 (cannot remember off hand, its been a while)

Yes I registered this week for the UTR. I read online it advises people to do their tax return early. I don't understand what they mean by early. Surely you'd want to wait a month before the Jan deadline so you can create a decent amount of time to do a tax return?

Have you registered to do self assessment yet or just got a UTR? Once you've registered for self assessment you have to do it every January there after until you deregister. 

In principle if you are just self employed then you could do your self assessment any time from 6th April until 31st January. Most people wait until the last minute and then do it in a flap and have problems if they thought they owed £X but HMRC calculate it as a higher £Y as it must also be paid by the 31st January. If you submitted it in August you'd then have 6 months to save up the extra thats due by the end of Jan. Obviously HMRC isn't going to complain either about knowing what revenues its going to be collecting earlier too, helps with planning. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

RKO1 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

RKO1 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Jan 2026 - they're only done once a year and always by January,  but you'll need to register for self assessment by September/October 2025 (cannot remember off hand, its been a while)

Yes I registered this week for the UTR. I read online it advises people to do their tax return early. I don't understand what they mean by early. Surely you'd want to wait a month before the Jan deadline so you can create a decent amount of time to do a tax return?

You have ~9 months to complete the return but a surprising number of people leave it to the last minute.  Doing it a month before the deadline would be fine, no reason to panic on the last day.

If you registered as self employed using the date of 3 April 2024 don't be surprised if you are asked to complete a return for 2023-24.

Do not ignore it.

So would I need to process two tax returns? 1 day for the work I did before 5th April 2023/2024 and another for 2024/2025?

Yes.  If you told HMRC you were self employed from 3 April 2024 then I wouldn't be surprised if they asked you to complete a return for 2023-24.

Self Assessment isn't just about self employment and it isn't for 1 day, it's for you to declare all taxable income for the 2023-24 tax year.  

The self employment aspect might be simpler if the turnover is covered by the trading allowance but you still need to fill in the rest of the return with any relevant details.

The deadline would be 31 January 2025.

RKO1

Thank you for the messages.

I'm currently waiting for my UTR number to arrive in the mail. 

I haven't registered for self-assessment yet. Where would I go to do this. Link please?

To clarify:

1. I need to declare the £200 I earned on 3rd April 2024 by 31st January 2025?

2. The bulk of my locum work so far needs to be declared by 31st January 2026?

I have expenses, like memberships, from December 2023 that apply to my 2024 tax year. Should these expenses be declared by 31st January 2025, or can they be included in the return due by 31st January 2026?

DullGreyGuy

You register via https://www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment