Help to prepare a self assessment tax return

Brie

poseidon1 said:

I subscribe to proprietary software from GOSimple Tax to prepare and submit my annual tax return online ( other  similar software providers are available).

Benefit of using this software is I can populate the return, as and when I feel like it and as the necessary information becomes available.

So for example, I receive rent, portfolio investment income ( both UK and foreign), bank interest and more recently state pension. I also contribute the minimal £2880 annually to a SIPP, so all in all a fair number of different supplentary SA  pages to complete. 

Was able to quickly populate Rent and  and Sipp  contributions sections soon after 5.4.2025. However currently working though bank interest entries ( 17 accounts!), as and when the instutions make available their annual certificates of interest online ( Kent Reliance was the only one where I had to phone up and request in the past). 

Investment portfoilo income year end  certificates are supplied by HL and Interative Investors, so I can pull the relevant UK and foreign source ( USA ) straight from what they supply. This is one of the major benefits of using  the UK platforms for your unwrapped UK and foreign investments, they collect and remit to you the investment income, then provide year end summaries for tax reporting purposes and even signify which boxes on your return the income should be reported,

Incidentally GoSimple have an excellent enquires desk ( online), so where you hit a stumbling block you can send an email enquiry with usually a  one working day turnaround. Added bonus for me, is I pay a much reduced £19 annual subscription via my Which magazine membership for this software service which fulfils all my self assement filing obligations, with instant access to all past returns ( 9 so far ).

In passing I note you apparently hold foreign mutual funds, which presumably have to be held offshore ( USA? ) because they are not authorised to sold in the UK and therefore held on a UK investment platform. If USA, presumably you have W- 8BEN in place to reduce dividend witholding tax from 30% to 15%?

Unless they are substantial holdings and pregnant with significant unrealised capital gains I would consider ( at some point) selling and repatriating the proceeds to the UK. Professionally I used to find these offshore funds awkward and sometimes time consuming to deal with on behalf of ( non dom) clients who at least had the remittance basis of tax to justify their retention. However, assuming they are dollar denominated, this perhaps is not the right time for you to sell, given the weakened dollar, but worth keeping a watching brief on this with a view to helping  you simplify your  self assessment compliance obligations going forward.

Thanks for this!!  

Currently I'm looking at the free version which doesn't allow me to submit a return with it but presumably would show me everything I need to include with an HMRC submission.  Though they are a bit vague about it being available "temporarily" and I don't know if that means 2 weeks or 2 years.  But it's a place to start.

No my foreign stuff isn't directly in the US (thankfully) so no W-8BEN required but yes is effected by the strength of any currencies.  Ultimately I'll be looking at a 2 stage process of disinvesting and later moving the funds to the UK.  I'd like to land it all here just to make life simpler but funds have been getting about a 10% annual return for the last decade and I don't know where to look to get something similar here.

poseidon1

Brie said:

poseidon1 said:

I subscribe to proprietary software from GOSimple Tax to prepare and submit my annual tax return online ( other  similar software providers are available).

Benefit of using this software is I can populate the return, as and when I feel like it and as the necessary information becomes available.

So for example, I receive rent, portfolio investment income ( both UK and foreign), bank interest and more recently state pension. I also contribute the minimal £2880 annually to a SIPP, so all in all a fair number of different supplentary SA  pages to complete. 

Was able to quickly populate Rent and  and Sipp  contributions sections soon after 5.4.2025. However currently working though bank interest entries ( 17 accounts!), as and when the instutions make available their annual certificates of interest online ( Kent Reliance was the only one where I had to phone up and request in the past). 

Investment portfoilo income year end  certificates are supplied by HL and Interative Investors, so I can pull the relevant UK and foreign source ( USA ) straight from what they supply. This is one of the major benefits of using  the UK platforms for your unwrapped UK and foreign investments, they collect and remit to you the investment income, then provide year end summaries for tax reporting purposes and even signify which boxes on your return the income should be reported,

Incidentally GoSimple have an excellent enquires desk ( online), so where you hit a stumbling block you can send an email enquiry with usually a  one working day turnaround. Added bonus for me, is I pay a much reduced £19 annual subscription via my Which magazine membership for this software service which fulfils all my self assement filing obligations, with instant access to all past returns ( 9 so far ).

In passing I note you apparently hold foreign mutual funds, which presumably have to be held offshore ( USA? ) because they are not authorised to sold in the UK and therefore held on a UK investment platform. If USA, presumably you have W- 8BEN in place to reduce dividend witholding tax from 30% to 15%?

Unless they are substantial holdings and pregnant with significant unrealised capital gains I would consider ( at some point) selling and repatriating the proceeds to the UK. Professionally I used to find these offshore funds awkward and sometimes time consuming to deal with on behalf of ( non dom) clients who at least had the remittance basis of tax to justify their retention. However, assuming they are dollar denominated, this perhaps is not the right time for you to sell, given the weakened dollar, but worth keeping a watching brief on this with a view to helping  you simplify your  self assessment compliance obligations going forward.

Thanks for this!!  

Currently I'm looking at the free version which doesn't allow me to submit a return with it but presumably would show me everything I need to include with an HMRC submission.  Though they are a bit vague about it being available "temporarily" and I don't know if that means 2 weeks or 2 years.  But it's a place to start.

No my foreign stuff isn't directly in the US (thankfully) so no W-8BEN required but yes is effected by the strength of any currencies.  Ultimately I'll be looking at a 2 stage process of disinvesting and later moving the funds to the UK.  I'd like to land it all here just to make life simpler but funds have been getting about a 10% annual return for the last decade and I don't know where to look to get something similar here.

At that level of annual return on the foreign mutual, I would stay put regardless of the self assessment inconvenience in reporting. A good example of not letting the 'tax tail wag the investment dog'.