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Personal tax accountant

Personal tax returns – Self assessment

Completing a Personal Tax Return, can prove to be a time-consuming and sometimes stressful task. Completing a tax return involves organising the relevant paperwork, filling in online forms with 100% accuracy, and submitting everything to HMRC by the 31st January deadline.

Self-Assessment is a system HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses to collect Income Tax.

Tax is usually deducted automatically from wages and pensions (PAYE tax). People and businesses with other income must report this on a tax return for example sole traders and landlords.

Who needs to submit a tax return?

It’s not just self-employed people and partnerships who need to send a tax return. You must complete and submit a Personal Tax Return if you fall into one of the below categories:

    • You are self-employed.
    • You are a higher-rate tax payer.
    • You are the Director of a limited company.
    • You receive rent or income from property in the UK.
    • You receive foreign income even if you don’t normally live in the UK. (£300 or more).
    • You receive any form of untaxed income, capital gains or losses.
    • You have your own pension fund or certain savings/investments.
    • You receive other untaxed income specified by HMRC.
    • You earned £2,500 or more in untaxed income.
    • Your taxable income was more than £100,000.
    • You had income from savings, investments or dividends of £1,000 or more before tax.
    • Either your income or your partner’s annual income was more than £50,000 and you claimed child benefit.

If you’re not sure whether you need to send a tax return, get in touch and we can discuss further.

Penalties

There are automatic penalties for late filing of tax returns. Failure to submit the tax return by 31st January incurs an automatic £100 penalty, even if you have no tax to pay, or you have paid any tax owed on time. After 3 months, a daily penalty is applied of £10 for every day the tax return is outstanding, up to maximum of £900 for 90 days.

Returns that are filed 6 months late are then charged the higher of £300 or 5% of the tax due, this penalty is repeated again if the return is then filed 12 months late.

In serious cases you may be asked to pay 100% of the tax due as a penalty for returns that are over 12 months late.

There are also penalties for errors and inaccuracies in tax returns and these can rise to 100% of the tax due.

For more help from expert personal tax accountants and information on self-assessment, contact us on 01792 410100 or via email mail@bevanbuckland.co.uk

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