Tax Returns

I want to register as self employed and declare what I'm making from framebuilding etc.

The Gov website says

"You need to set up as a sole trader if any of the following apply:

you earned more than £1,000 from self-employment between 6 April 2019 and 5 April 2020"

Emphasis is mine because this is the bit I'm not sure about.

Do they mean profit or turnover? Tax year 2019/20 is a moot point as I had less than £1k come in but this year I will go over that £1k threshold for money coming in but my outgoings will still be more than my income so the way I interpret it, I'll not have earned anything.

Am I looking at that the wrong way?

It's £1000 gross. So you'll need to do a tax return.

It's too do with the trading allowance

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-allowances-on-property-and-trading-income#trade

That was how I thought it worked. It's a lot clearer on that link you sent, cheers.

I presume there's a way for me to carry the losses I made last year (buying things like a frame jig) into this year when I do this years return. Hopefully that'll become clear once I start doing it.

I presume there's a way for me to carry the losses I made last year (buying things like a frame jig) into this year when I do this years return.

You should be able to "sell" the tools of the trade which you own in person to your sole-trading self. You need to record that transaction at a price which you can defend at audit, so in practice whatever you reasonably think you could sell it for to an unrelated party. As a small sole trader, you can expense most durable things other than motor vehicles rather than booking them as assets on a balance sheet.

Also look at Pre-trading expenses, I think that may cover it

That makes sense.

I'm reading a bit about losses and its saying I could claim for losses going back to 2016/17 but I think I'd have had to have done a return for the years the losses occurred and there's something about only claiming for the loss if it was more than your income? Selling myself the tools seems a better way to about it.

Wonder if I can lend them to myself this year since I'll likely be making a loss again anyway and then sell them to myself next year as it may be more useful to offset income then...?

Wonder if I can lend them to myself this year since I'll likely be making a loss again anyway and then sell them to myself next year as it may be more useful to offset income then...?

Use one, but only one, of these three methods to optimise your tax affairs by earning your allowance but no more in any given year:

1. Once you're officially trading and filing returns, you can carry forward losses, so a loss in year one effectively becomes an expense to kick off year two.

2. Acquire the tools as before, but put them on the balance sheet rather than expensing the full cost in year one, and depreciate over the life of the tools

3. If you have some PAYE income, which I guess you must have to keep the wolf from the door, declare the loss in year one and get some of your PAYE tax rebated.

I am fully PAYE, always have been.
But this year I keep getting notifications stating that I need to complete my self assessment.
What gives?

Might this be because I did some tax relief form on gov. UK for covid WFH...?

Any clues on what to do?

Humblebrag?

(Do you earn 6 figures...)

Not really but just call them, they may waive the requirement or at least tell you why they’re requesting it

looooool

quite a few reasons for SA requests.

If you earn over £100,000, claim child support, have untaxed income (rental property [including airbnb], investments, dividends, overseas income)

Have a go on https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return and see what the outcome is.

Nice one.
Thank you.

Anyone have a nice accountant?

I usually do my return on cash basis but thinking about going to trad accounting. I would like to be talked through the pros and cons of this.

Just a reminder to people to pay unto HMRC that which you have to before the end of the month, in order to avoid fines.

thank you dammit.

was freelance for about 1 month of last tax year before going PAYE so this is only a little bit annoying.

I'm PAYE with potential upcoming complications. Are there accountants that will provide info/consult via email or over the phone or something? My old accountants when I was contracting were a bit useless so I don't really want to go back to them.

I've been with the company below for the last 6 years or so,they're only online and phone. I don't know if they do one off jobs or whether you have to be an ongoing client but the reason I picked them was they were the only company that answered all of my (pretty basic) questions. I must have rang about 20 companies before who were all 'we'll be happy to tell you everything once you sign up for the 200 quid a month'

Edit - also forgot to add they're really good, lots of communication and chasing things, they always sort my accounts (personal and company) well in advance. Everyone I work with seems to have proper dodgy accountants with everything really unorganised and still scrambling for receipts at the end of January.

https://www.3wisebears.co.uk/

Thanks! I'll give them a look.

"Thank you for your recent enquiry.
Unfortunately, we are not taking on new clients."

#sadface

I use Bernie (of this forum), or his firm rather - they're very good to deal with: http://pbllp.co.uk

Just done my tax return for 2019/20.

Stuck £12 in the "Other expenses and capital allowances:" box for 3 weeks of £4/wk tax relief for forced working from home. I was still in the office until mid-March before we were forced to WFH so can't claim for more than 3 weeks in the 2019/20 tax year. £4.80 of sweet tax relief, will try and buy the majority of a pint when pubs eventually reopen.

Need a couple of days to think about whether there were any other charitable giving that means I can claim back more from gift aid relief, assuming not I'll submit it and then wait a couple of days before making the payment.

Probably the earliest I've been in this state, usually it's getting much closer to Jan 31st.

This is also about the time of year I promise not to leave it until January next year and that I'll fill in the details as soon as I get my P60 and P11D. But that never happens.

I've just been alerted to the possibility of claiming tax relief on professional fees and subscriptions - I read some stuff that said it's only if you're required to have them to do your job, other things that say you can't claim on union membership even if you have to have it - but this page suggests if it's on the list and it's "relevant" to your work, you can claim it - https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/professional-fees-and-subscriptions

Anyone do this?

Has anyone had a situation where the summary payment section on their account shows a lower amount than they think is due?

Under the "At a glance" section it says

View account
~£1k is now due for payment.

Which I paid last week and is clearly still processing. But the bulk of the money owed on my SA only shows up in the "2019-20 View your calculation".

But yet whenever I go to any pay links it's always that ~£1k amount.

Am I meant to just make a payment entering in the total shown on my "View your calculation" even though it doesn't show as owed on my account.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

When did you file your return? It can take up to 3 days for a return to be reflected in the "At a glance" page.