How to avoid self assessment

dales1

It is far more preferable to file an easy SA return ...

... than to suffer the grief of people whose actual interest income differs from HMRC figures. (A tedious situation to resolve). Doing an SA return means your own figures of interest take precedence over theirs.

In all previous years, I would aim to sell enough shares to make capital gains of about £50 under the annual allowance, to avoid a CGT tax bill.

Nowadays I aim to sell enough to make capital gains of about £50 over the exempt allowance, so as to keep myself within the SA criteria.

Keep_pedalling

I used to hate my annual tax returns, and I was really glad when we managed to funnel all our GIA savings into ISAs so were no longer required to do them. 

InvesterJones

masonic said:

You would only need to file due to your investments if you disposed of investments worth more than £50k or made a capital gain of more than £3k, or (maybe) dividends above that allowance.

This does seem like a rather extreme case of tax tail wagging the dog. It may be wholly appropriate for you to invest some of your cash, but doing it for this reason is perhaps some more careful thought.

Pretty sure there's no requirement to begin SA if you dispose of investments worth more than £50k these days

poseidon1

Good to see the majority on this thread favour the control of one's tax affairs that come with self assessment.  However suspect OP  probably has far more in common with the majority of the population that prefer to be spoon fed their tax interactions with  HMRC , via tax code adjustments.

I personally find it distinctly odd that he finds it necessary to change his saving and investing behaviour  ( potentially to his detriment) to avoid taking control of his own tax reporting.

masonic

InvesterJones said:

masonic said:

You would only need to file due to your investments if you disposed of investments worth more than £50k or made a capital gain of more than £3k, or (maybe) dividends above that allowance.

This does seem like a rather extreme case of tax tail wagging the dog. It may be wholly appropriate for you to invest some of your cash, but doing it for this reason is perhaps some more careful thought.

Pretty sure there's no requirement to begin SA if you dispose of investments worth more than £50k these days

Yes that's right but OP has already been enrolled and wishes to avoid being asked to file next year.

redped

I used to do SA but don't any more, and I'm sorely tempted to start doing it again. That way, I'll know exactly how much tax I owe/am owed, rather than HMRC's annual guess based on their (inaccurate) estimates of how much interest I'll make this year. It doesn't matter if I correct their estimates, they never seem to get my tax code right. Doing SA means an evening of my calculations, rather than waiting many months for HMRC to correct their mistakes.