Self assessment

MrChips

Hello - my wife is unemployed but received a letter in the post a while back saying she needed to complete a self assessment form. I don't know exactly why but it might be that she's marginally strayed over the personal allowance due to savings interest.

I've this evening gone in to register her for self assessment but it's saying we can't fill in the form without a code that arrives in the post and that might take up to a week.

I think HMRC are expecting her to complete the form by early July (the letter asked her to complete it within 3 months of 2 April and as her tax affairs are so straightforward we figured it would only take a few minutes to complete the form).

Any recommendations about how best to work around this? I think a paper form is still acceptable as we are before 31 October…

MrChips

Follow up question (sorry!) - if we file by post, we also have to pay the tax by 2 July - but I can't see how we'll know how much to pay as they won't have told us by the deadline…

I thought it would just be 20% of anything over the personal allowance but some google searching indicates actually there might not be anything to pay due to the £5,000 starting rate and £1k savings allowance.

Circumstances are no employment income/benefits. Only income is around £15,200 of savings interest and £650 of dividends in 2024/25. She gets child benefit but I pay that back through my own self assessment.

sheramber

31st October is only relevant for a 25/26 self assessment return.

The 3 month deadline would apply to an earlier year such 24/25.

fuzzzzy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050068#Comment_82050068

There would not be any tax to pay on the savings interest as it is covered by the personal allowance and savings starter rate, but there would be tax due on dividends above the dividend allowance of £500, so 8.75% of £150. I think.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050204#Comment_82050204

But if £150 of the Personal Allowance was allocated to the dividend income that would leave just £500 to be taxed. And that would all be at the dividend nil rate of 0%.

That would in turn mean £150 mor or the interest would be taxed but that would also fall into a 0% tax band (savings starter rate in this case).

sherlock228

bottom line is:
a) she must submit a tax return or she will get an automatic penalty for failing to do so given HMRC have individually told her to do one.
b) she will not have any tax to pay.

As you have not confirmed which tax year she has been asked to submit, the 3 month deadline is unclear.

MrChips

Thanks for all the input. Apologies for not clarifying re which tax year, it's 2024/25, and the letter requesting her to submit a self assessment return was dated 2 April 2026.

I also got £0 tax owing from filling in a calculator on HMRC site, but good to know that's the general consensus here too (albeit it sounds like it's a bit more complicated than I expected!).

So, my provisional conclusion is…

1. Unless a code miraculously turns up in the post by Tuesday, I'll need to print and complete a self assessment form and post it in (I don't think she needs any 'supplementary' pages so the form itself looks pretty brief and straightforward). If anyone knows a better solution to get the return submitted by Thursday do let me know!
2. No tax to pay so don't need to worry about also sending some cash before Thursday 2 July.

Assuming they receive the paper form by Thursday there will be no penalty and no tax due.

Re dividends, I don't think it will make any difference to the tax due calculation due to the amounts involved but are these based on dividends received during the tax year, or the tax year in which they are in respect of?

She holds about 3000 shares in a former employer and receives an interim dividend in September each year followed by a final dividend in July. The July one is in respect of the company year ending in the previous tax year however.

cc123mm456

If you do end up sending the paper form by post, I suggest that you request a free certificate of posting at the post office counter, just in case there might be any dispute later about the date of sending it to HMRC.

The post office staff might try to up sell recorded delivery or special delivery (they did that with me last time that I requested a free certificate of posting). For HMRC those additional services would be of no benefit. The free certificate of posting is all you will need.

There have been a few other threads about this. As I understand it from reading those, an item is deemed delivered 2 days after the date of posting.

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050332#Comment_82050332

It’s when you receive the dividend that counts. The company’s accounting is irrelevant.

Technically the tax date is the declared payment date and not the date that it’s credited to your account but this only really matters for dividends close to the end of the tax year.

fuzzzzy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050210#Comment_82050210

Thanks for correcting that. I did have a moment of doubt after writing it, but I knew someone would come along and correct it if it was wrong. 😊

DRS1

She is being asked for a self assessment because her taxable savings interest is over £10k. For as long as that continues she will be asked for self assessments so it would be a good idea to get the log in code or whatever it is.

Putting some of the money into an ISA may help (not so much to save tax if she isn't paying any but in reducing the "taxable" savings interest to a level where she doesn't have to do self assessment).

Also if she has employment income or a pension in the future that may start to eat away at the starter rate.