Tax Returns

according to quick google then you don't need to pro rata. it's just flat £6 regardless
https://www.att.org.uk/home-sweet-home-%E2%80%93-tax-relief-home-working

The weekly, flat-rate amount applies equally to part-time workers and it is not necessary to pro-rate it because the employee does not work at home full-time.

gov.uk has a page to check quickly
https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

Am I missing something?

You're missing that there's no harm in submitting a tax return even if you have no tax to pay or reclaim. Better to do it than risk a lateness penalty which you then have to waste even more time trying to reverse

Thanks for indulging my laziness!

It's only pro-rata on the number of weeks you were working in the year, e.g. if you only worked for 6 months then you can't claim tax relief on 52 weeks * £6 = £312.

I'll only be able to claim for it for ~5 months when I come to do my 2021/22 tax return, but that's because I had 7 months off work.

Also remember it's a tax relief. If you qualify for the full 52 weeks and claim relief on £312 then you'll actually get back £78 if your maximum tax rate was 25% and £124.80 if your maximum tax rate was 40%.

Well fuck. I was charged at basic rate all year for 20/21. That's one big-ass tax bill I have to pay by checks calendar tomorrow night :(

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-gives-self-assessment-taxpayers-more-time-to-ease-covid-19-pressures

Absolutely crap day for me. Have been doing self assessment for over ten years now and thought this years round of paperwork was tied up months ago only to check and find out I had underpaid them - or rather they had calculated wrong and my account was outstanding but I had never been billed or notified to that effect. That was fairly easy to sort out but do you think I could view my NI contributions to check that was in order? Could I buggery. There was no way on Gods great earth that website was giving me any clue how to find my way into that little bit of info. Any seemingly pertinent link just looped me back to the HMRC home page and obligatory resubmitting of my log in.
Shite.

Mrs Underuser had some accountant at work submit her figures, good that he input her £673.00 interest income as £67.3k extra

I've just tried to claim my tax credit - I logged in to government gateway, I can see my self assessment account. I then need to prove my identity - I chose to use my passport and most recent P60. I've entered the info twice and both times it says it's incorrect. I'm fairly sure it's not incorrect, they're both quite definitive documents. I'm not going to keep trying, but has anyone else has this problem or managed it successfully?

Yes. I don’t have a passport and none of the other info inputs are relevant so I am effectively frozen out. Fortunately I don’t have to do self-assessment but I probably do have to formally declare that fact so my tax code can be changed and I definitely do need to find out where I am with NI contributions.

My wife had this with self assessment this year, after many hours on the phone we finally discovered hmrc had the wrong date of birth on record (even though they kept on letting her through data checks) so when we tried to validate her Id through digidentity it kept failing. In the end we had to send her full details with a certified copy of her passport by post to get it amended.

There's a number specifically for digital records where you can call to check. Prepare yourself for an hours worth of hold music.

Thanks @user67689 and @Gewürzt

It's just annoying. I've been doing self-assessment for years and I don't mind doing it even though I'm entirely PAYE atm. The old system of simply transferring it to your nominated account worked fine, I can't believe it was that much of a security risk. Keeping the credit for next year is pointless for me, I seem to overpay every year. Need to get a tax code changed I guess.

Yep. Being doing the SA thing for over ten years now and although I always dread it, it never proved too difficult - the hardest thing, TBH, was getting the 16 digit log in ID correct! This new log in is a bloody nuisance though as with no land line and no consistent good mobile signal in my 19th Century granite hovel, waiting on hold for them to answer a call for an hour just can’t be done.

HRMC's 'Five Known Facts' system for verifying people has completely collapsed.

Five Known Facts

Yes, it takes a lot for granted. Trying to file a return for my dad, who has never done one before, and he has literally none of the documents they ask for. It then took about a week to download a printable form SA1 because the server which runs the script to fill it in was down, and they still haven't issued a UTR despite receiving the form before Christmas. He has been on the government payroll for 70 years (RAF, Civil service, pension) and they still don't know him 🙂

Had much the same, after weeks of faff I managed to phone a human and they set me up in under 10 minutes with a UTR, I nearly fainted

Anyone got both paye and self employed stuff to declare?

I do and have gotten a ‘week 56’ payment from my paye job this year and my self employment will be in loss so wondering if I can offset what I’ve been underpaid in paye against my self employed stuff.

wondering if I can offset what I’ve been underpaid in paye against my self employed stuff.

AFAIK just complete a tax return as normal. Will ask you for employment income and also any other self employed income and calculate using both.

I have definitely done what you describe before.

Week 56 is not a PAYE tax option

53 only kicks in if there is a payday on 5 April

Not sure where they got 56 from

(Payroll professional here)

53 is for weekly paid, 54 for fortnightly and 56 for 4 weekly.

https://www.iris.co.uk/support/knowledgebase/kb/11993/

Everyday is a school day!
Thanks for that, never dealt with 4-weekly pay period before.
Will read up on it.

I’ve never managed to use a self employed loss to offset what I’ve paid through paye that’s why I’m thinking it’s not going to be straightforward to offset the underpayment of paye tax.

If you see what I mean.

If you see what I mean

Yeah, I think trading losses can only offset trading profits. You don't get a reimbursable tax credit if all your trading operations taken together add up to a loss.

I’ve never managed to use a self employed loss to offset what I’ve paid through paye that’s why I’m thinking it’s not going to be straightforward to offset the underpayment of paye tax.

If you see what I mean.

Either I've misunderstood your scenario or I've been breaking the law.

Isn't your question whether you can offset your self employed losses against your PAYE income?

Isn't your question whether you can offset your self employed losses against your PAYE income?

No, I thought this was impossible, how have you been doing it? Or maybe you don't want to post that on a public forum actually!

What I'm asking about is that because of the way the dates fall this year we get 14 paydays instead of the usual 13, my tax free allowance was however divided by 13 so my allowance was all used up last month and this month I should have paid basic rate on all my pay. To stop you having a month where you earn less though they (hmrc I think) give me an extra allowance this month and then claim it back next year by reducing my tax code.

I wondered if it would be possible to offset the allowance I've been given against my self employment since it'll be a loss anyway and would therefor 'swallow up' the extra.