Self-employed: too much tax?

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oligopoly
oligopoly Posts: 389 Forumite
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Hi. My wife's submitting her tax return for her self-employed business but the amount of tax they want to charge doesn’t seem right to me.

For 2017/2018 she made approx. £17,000 after expenses (approx. £19k before expenses). On this, HMRC is trying to charge around £3.6k, which seems way to high to me. What do you think?

We’ll probably hire an accountant to do future years’ as we find it so confusing!
Increasingly money-conscious
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  • Comms69
    Comms69 Posts: 14,229 Forumite
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    oligopoly wrote: »
    Hi. My wife's submitting her tax return for her self-employed business but the amount of tax they want to charge doesn’t seem right to me.

    For 2017/2018 she made approx. £17,000 after expenses (approx. £19k before expenses). On this, HMRC is trying to charge around £3.6k, which seems way to high to me. What do you think?

    We’ll probably hire an accountant to do future years’ as we find it so confusing!

    Is that her only income?
  • oligopoly
    oligopoly Posts: 389 Forumite
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    Comms69 wrote: »
    Is that her only income?

    Yes it is indeed.
    Increasingly money-conscious
    :cool:
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,306 Forumite
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    I agree it seems high for income tax - is it just income tax and not NI too?


    That looks like 20% tax on all her earnings, rather than tax on only her earnings above her personal allowance. Has she entered her tax code correctly and what is it?
    But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,
    Had the whole of their cash in his care.
    Lewis Carroll
  • oligopoly
    oligopoly Posts: 389 Forumite
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    Yes it's roughly 20% of everything with no tax-free allowance factored in.. I'm not sure on her tax code - i just wanted to clarify whether others thought this looked wrong - and if so we will look into further before submitting.
    Increasingly money-conscious
    :cool:
  • Nearlyold
    Nearlyold Posts: 2,289 Forumite
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    Is £3.6K the amount of Tax and NI showing as due for the 2017-18 tax year or the amount you are being asked to pay in Jan 19.
  • oligopoly
    oligopoly Posts: 389 Forumite
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    Don't quote me too much on this as i'm away from the screen but i think it was asking for something like £2k tax plus a £1.6k contribution towards 18/19? something like that. She's actually on mat leave so earnings this financial year will be minimal...
    Increasingly money-conscious
    :cool:
  • comeandgo
    comeandgo Posts: 5,744 Forumite
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    That's the way it is with the first self employment tax figure. You pay the year s tax and NI you are due and another half of it as first payment on next year's tax.
  • oligopoly
    oligopoly Posts: 389 Forumite
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    The first? She's submitted previous year's tax figures... If what you say is correct then why isn't this year's payment less as surely we should have similarly paid half in advance last financial year?
    Increasingly money-conscious
    :cool:
  • comeandgo
    comeandgo Posts: 5,744 Forumite
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    Yes, it does happen every year, was the profit very low last year and she is now playing catch up?
  • oligopoly
    oligopoly Posts: 389 Forumite
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    comeandgo wrote: »
    was the profit very low last year and she is now playing catch up?

    No - it was her best year. My belief is that should there be a mistake and she pays too much tax then HMRC will correct it. I'm just worried what knock on effect this might have as we're in a mortgage application...
    Increasingly money-conscious
    :cool:
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