Help! I think I've submitted my Tax Return incorrectLy

TheEyeThatEats

On filling out this years tax return, I became aware that I may very well have filled out the previous years incorrectly and may owe money from that period. Now i'm a sole trader and the money I owe will be in the hundreds, but still I've been losing sleep over being charged some massive fine that right now I simply cannot afford. What should I do? What should i expect?
_pale_

System

All you have to do is write to your tax office and explain the error and ask them to amend the relevant tax returns. You will incur interest charges on any extra tax owed.

Murdina

You can also still amend 2007 if it applies to that year. There may also be surcharges as well as interest and you may find yourself the subject of an enquiry while they try to establish exactly why the errors arose, so make that as clear as possible in your letter.
You may find that you have to chase up your letter to get it acted on; it may help to mark it for the attention of an inspector or the officer in charge of your district.
Whatever you do, act and do not just forget about it.

TheEyeThatEats

If the tax i owe is around £300 and it was due Jan last year, what should i expect in the way of interest? Obviously I'll need to budget accordingly.

It should be very clear to them why the errors arose, I didn't know i had to declare my part time job as I thought it had already been taxed.

Murdina

There are a few points here.

1 Self assessment - it's a common mistake to assume you do not have to put on sources of income you think are already taxed. EVERY source of income has to go on the return.

2 You say you thought your part time job was taxed already. Have you a P60? Because if it was, you simply show the tax as well as the pay on the return and so long as your code was "right" ( I would guess BR - tax at basic rate - would be the right one) no more tax due

3 If however, your part time job was not taxed for whatever reason, then amending your return will produce a liability which should have been paid on 31/1/07 from what you say. The interest rate has just gone down from 8.5% to 7.5%. However, your underpayment may also affect your liability to make payments on account, so it is not so simple as to say tax due £300 + interest on that at 8.5% for a year about £25. There will be a 5% surcharge which was due on 28/2/07 (£15) and another in July (£15) and interest I understand runs on those. If you should have paid more on account last year, interest runs on that.

4 If you still have the part time job, you need to make sure that your employer codes it correctly from now on. Did you complete form P46 when you started? if not, ring your tax office - with details of your employer and if possible their PAYE office to hand and explain you work there part time and ask them to arrange for a code to be issued. If your personal allowances are all used up elsewhere, then you probably need code BR as above.
Hope that helps.

TheEyeThatEats

Hi, thanks all for your help.

Yeah my part time job was defenitley taxed, i just rang them and got the figures. I earned around 11k - with NI amounting to £700 and PAYE around £1800.

However on filling out this years return, i found that although I only had a turnover of 3k and profit a mere £500, when added to the part time employment I owed £344, which i thought was grossly unfair, but paid nevertheless. (i added my pension refund as a lump sum, which added £200 to the tax bill)

I've just called the revenue to say that I know I filled it in wrong, and will write them a letter next week with the details. I feel like I've been to confsesion.

Its worth noting that I have something of a phobia of Forms and your question regarding the P46 made my eyes glaze over somewhat. But I've left there now and have full time job in the Irish Republic.