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It wouldn't be an hour. It'd be an hour to find all the charity donations (like "Gift Aid" doesn't show up in most donation emails), another hour to work out how to register on their stupid system and find all the details from work and then an hour to go through the forms and then weeks of worrying I'd got something wrong and then more hours when my tax bill came in and some new shit turns up that I've now got to pay for and...
Even with work doing my tax now and a simple letter turning up, because HMRC fucked it, I've had to spend an hour on the phone the last couple of years explaining to them that "no I don't still run a limited company" and they then refund £££ I didn't even know I was owed.
I don't trust them to get it right, I don't trust me to get it right. I'm worried if I speak to them again they'll find I owe them a big pile of cash for some other reason.
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hippy
Your call but it takes me under 30 minutes to do my tax return each year. The hardest part is finding all of the bits of paper but I'm getting better at collating that in advance or hassling payroll depts for a copy.
It's simply inputting numbers from P60, P11D, the odd bank statement and charity donations (plus child benefit which is the reason I have to do it). This is the first year I've got an email from JustGiving so that makes that bit of guesswork even easier.
I think my last tax return involved me putting non-zero numbers in about 20 boxes spread over 10 pages. All online. (Although knowing what to and what not is required I agree is 90% of the work.) I live a relatively uncomplicated life with no other forms of taxable income or investments.
As a higher rate tax payer:-
30 minutes, or even an hour first time, for £375 back? I'd say that would be worth my time.
Tax returns are only complicated if you have anything more than a simple life: BtL/rental income, dividends from own company, more than one job, etc, etc.