Self-assessment Online Tax Return, Five Self-assessment Tax Return Survival Tips

Self-assessment Online Tax Return Introduction

This tax year (2012) over 9 million people have submitted their tax return to the HM Revenue & Customs online website, so avoiding the automatic penalty of £100 for filing on or after 1st February 2013.

• The number of people choosing to file their tax return online has nearly doubled over the past five years, with over 45 per cent of all tax returns being submitted online in 2008, rising to over 80 per cent last January.

HMRC have made it quite easy to submit an online tax return, the first page consisting of yes/no tick box’s, which is then followed by pages relevant to your specific tax return. It can take less than 5 minutes to complete. The difficult part is getting all the information together in the first place.

This year it looks like, almost two million self-assessment tax payers will fail to submit their tax return online before the deadline.

• According to the tax office, a total of 321,000 people filed their tax returns on Tuesday 29th January, a rate of over 13,000 an hour.

Those who miss the midnight deadline for online tax returns will be fined £100, this applies even if they have no tax to pay. On top of this penalty, the penalties mount up every three months your tax return is late:

• £10 daily fines if you are three months late.
• £300 penalty or 5?per cent of tax due, whichever is higher, if you are six months late.

Last year, our very nice taxman raked in an estimated £1billion from these additional fines.

• Paper tax returns had to be filed by October 31st.

Five Self-assessment Tax Return Survival Tips

By Tony Bernstein at Chartered Accountants HW Fisher & Co.

1. If you do not have exact figures, put in estimates. You must however make the estimates as accurate as possible, and flag up on the form that the figures are estimates and not exact. You will still need to supply exact figures later, but at least estimates will do for now.
2. Focus on the most relevant information. If you don’t have a P60 form from your employer, your March payslip will have much of the same information. Earlier payslips can be ignored. Your bank statements can also tell you much of what you need to know – how much you paid in pension contributions, charitable donations and so on.
3. Don’t forget to declare the interest you received from your bank. Your March statement will often show how much interest you received over the year, so that’s the most important one to look at.
4. Similarly you must declare the dividends you received from shares or similar investments. This rule applies whether you received the dividends as cash or they were reinvested. If you don’t have a personalised dividend certificate, the fund manager or company will usually list the dividend paid per share on its website. You can multiply that by the current number of shares you own to work out the dividend you received.
5. Finally, remember that the internet and the phone are your friends. If you can’t find the relevant paper statements, you may be able to get the info you need over the phone or online.

Five Self-assessment Tax Return Survival Tips Conclusion

I know HMRC aren’t generating any fans right now with their business practises but it’s your own fault if you get fined for leaving it so late to file a return!

Well, I hope you found something useful and enjoyed this article, Self-assessment Online Tax Return, Five Tips to Stop You Missing the Deadline.