Self-Assessment Tax Return - deadline looming close

The best holiday season is upon us, whether you are religious or not, there is always something magical about Christmas. The last thing on our minds is the dreaded self assessment tax return due to be submitted to the HMRC by 31 January. Unfortunately for us, if it's late, there is an fixed penalty of £100 and one may also incur a daily penaly for each day of late submission, which escalates as time passes before submission.

If you owe tax on your income this must be paid to HMRC by 31 January following the end of the tax year and if left unpaid, penalties and interest accrue.

So the question remains, do you need to complete that self-assessment tax return? A self assessment tax return need to completed if you are self-employed, or in receipt of rental income, or have income from other investments and saving such as dividends, overseas investments ect. If you have made profits on a sell of an asset such as a second property or shares then there may be a case of having to pay capital gains tax.

One understands this all sounds daunting, convoluted and more importantly expensive. The last thing any of us want is to do is hand over our more than our fair share of hard earned monies over to the Revenue. And there in comes the assistance to mitigate your tax liability with expert help.

When your calculating your self-employed tax return there are a number of allowable expenses that are deductible. As a self-employed person you will incur expenses to help you carry on with your business such as materials and tools you may have needed in order to trade. Travel expenses to help you get around like fuel, rail fare, insurance for your car, offices costs such as heating lighting, stationery, telephone charges, financial costs include insurance and bank charges, staff costs, marketing costs to advertise your business, even clothing such as a uniform or protective gear, the list is endless. These expenses may be deductible against your income.

Self-employed tax return for a self-employed person is not an exercise to dread, when you take all the expenses into consideration your tax payable may not be as high as you think. For example if you turnover £30,000 over the year and your expenses total £10,000, you will only have to pay tax on £20,000 less the personal allowances.

Self-assessment tax return need to include all income received from other sources along with your salary or wages. As explained above income from investments and savings or rental income, overseas investments, also includes income received in the UK while living abroad. Each of these categories have different levels of income tax computations dependant on the tax band and the levels of exemptions. For your self- assessment tax return help Click here.

Get together all the documents needed to compute your tax return before Christmas, that way your self assessment tax return is submitted on time, no penalty charge and you have more than 30 days to allow yourself time to save for any tax payments due if at all, by 31 January. This way the new year starts with a clean slate.