With the deadline for filing your 2021/2022 tax return looming, here are our top tips to help you complete it in time.
Self-assessment deadline 2021/2022
Although the deadline is 31st January 2023, don’t leave it to the last minute to start, in case the HMRC website crashes or you need more time to find missing information or have questions answered.
If you miss the deadline, you will automatically be fined £100 by HMRC, plus interest on unpaid tax.
So here are our tips:
- Get your paperwork in order – you will need documents such as:
- P11D and P60 from your employer
- Savings interest certificates
- Gift Aid donations
- Ensure that you are using data from the right tax year – it’s easy to get it wrong, especially if your business tax year is different to HMRC’s.
- Sign up for a Government Gateway login now if you have not previously completed your self assessment online.
- Allocate your savings interest correctly – interest from joint bank accounts can be split, and interest from your business bank account and ISAs do not need to go into your personal self assessment.
- Allocate your marriage allowance from the non-taxpayer to the partner who pays tax, but this only works for basic rate tax payers.
- Coronavirus support grants for the year to April 2022 will need to be included, although loans do not (since they are loans, not income).
- Don’t feel that you have to complete this mountainous task all at once – you may find it easier to complete smaller steps (such as collating all the paperwork) one at a time.
If you feel overwhelmed by your self assessment tax return, don’t ignore it – it won’t go away and will only get worse. Give us a call and we would be happy to help you with it.
A reminder of who needs to file a UK tax return
You will be asked by HMRC to complete a self assessment tax return if you:
- Have any sources of untaxed income eg landlords
- Are a higher rate tax payer with further tax to pay
- Have sold an asset (including property or crypto assets) and may be liable to Capital Gains Tax (CGT)
- Are self-employed or a company director
HMRC may already have contacted you about your self-assessment, but did you know that you can choose to send your own tax return? You may wish to do this if you believe that you are owed a tax refund and would like it sooner rather than later.
