Tax Returns

RPM
Just wondering, was your log of mileage backed by any hard evidence (photos of the meter readings I suppose?)?
What did your accountant (if you had one) think of it?

I did mileage last year, not with any hard evidence but I have a spreadsheet where I have set up dates and miles. This is of course not anally exact, but I think I am being fair about it. It's not much money off your tax anyway.
Hard evidence in the form of meter readings etc is not required for cars so who's going to claim it's needed for bicycles?
Just stick to a fair and not over the top number and no one's going to ask questions.

But my question:

I once heard a number for how much your expenses lowers your tax paid. Something like 40 or 60 p for every pound spent. Can anyone remember?
I am considering whether to sell off some sticky unsold stock for cheap or keep it and fill it in as expenses at the end of the tax year - seeing as that should save me some money anyway.

Just got my login and pin the other day, now I have 10 days to do my tax return for the first time!

I always get the fear when I do mine, usually with good reason, but this time they actually owe me a tidy sum.

it would be better to owe them money though?

Cash flow aside, yes.

'kinell I've just filled in all the bits and the website's calculated that I owe them £1056 on £3005 earnings. That's, what, 35% tax? I thought it was supposed to be a flat rate depending on your bracket?

What about NI contributions and payments on account?

Good question! The calculator says the figure is for 'Total tax, Class 4 NIC and Student loan due for 2010-11' so I expect it's lumped them all together which seems to make a bit more sense.

Felt a bit furtive putting my paltry £5.12 allowable expenses into the box for electricity costs even though they say that's allowed :D

Felt a bit furtive putting my paltry £5.12 allowable expenses into the box for electricity costs even though they say that's allowed :D

You're not doing it right...
#HMRCcheat

So it's that time of year again.

Or is it?

I've noticed a few billboards and stuff advertising the Jan 31st self assesment deadline, so I thought I'd better get on it but when I log into the HMRC site it tells me that I've done my return for 2010/11 and I can't find anything about 2011/12.

Am I doing it wrong?

Do I have to wait until after April 5th to do me return?

Is the Jan 31st deadline for anyone that's not done their 2010/11 return yet?

Also, last year I had like £75 of self employed earnings (only became self employed in Jan 2011) so I just put in my self employed earnings, paye earnings and because I'm a poor student and don't work much, got my refund. I didn't bother putting in any expenses or anything.

This year I will still only have a few hundred quid of self employed earnings and should be due a refund of tax I've paid through paye employment but should I really be putting in expenses and putting my computer and cameras as capital or whatever it is you do? Will I need receipts? Can I claim in 2012 for a mac I bought in 2008 and cameras I bought from eBay??

Not sure if 2008 claim on the mac is possible. Was under the impression that stuff like that which I presume falls under annual investment allowance is only the tax year? May well be wrong and it's on a list of questions A mile long I've sent to my accountant so if he gets back to me I'll let you know :)

Not sure if 2008 claim on the mac is possible. Was under the impression that stuff like that which I presume falls under annual investment allowance is only the tax year? May well be wrong and it's on a list of questions A mile long I've sent to my accountant so if he gets back to me I'll let you know :)

Cool thanks. I did a business gateway bookeeping course and they briefly spoke about this and I thought they had said that if you owned a car when you started your business you could claim for it so I presumed other stuff would be the same but maybe not.

You say this is called annual investment allowance? I'll lookout for it whenever I do my return.

I suppose I bought a lens (used but I think I got the original sales receipt with it) and a Fuji X100 this year so could maybe get some tax back on them. It's the depreciation of the item that they take off of any tax you owe (or in my case add onto the tax they owe me back) isn't it?

Paid my personal tax.. not so bad. Company tax is gonna bite.. but at least it's all been put aside expecting the worst.

Since we are discussing tax, anyone know what happens if I were to spend 12 months working in say, South Korea? Do I pay UK income tax on money earned in another country? I'm guessing that to not have to pay it would be too good to be true. If I do have to pay it how will it be taken?

You only pay tax here on what you earn in the UK. You would pay tax on your earnings in lalaland in lalaland.

You only pay tax here on what you earn in the UK. You would pay tax on your earnings in lalaland in lalaland.

Sweet! (Off to google which lalalands have the lowest income tax rates as I'm doing a TEFL course this month and hoping to work abroad for at least a year after I finish my degree.)

If you're only in another country for a year.. what's tax?

If you're only in another country for a year.. what's tax?

That had crossed my mind.

I presume that where employment is arranged through something like TEFL they might be johnny on the ball as regards things like this though.

I was also kind of hoping that the student loans company might lose track of me if I go and work abroad bt that really might be wishful thinking.

Thing is, if you're only there for a year, you'll probably be in some temporary high tax bracket and then you can get it all back before you leave, since you've overpaid. That's how it works here but it's probably completely different in lalaland.

You can claim a small amount for home office but the extension would be considered a, what do you call it, fringe benefit um.. whatsit tax

Just sat down to do my tax return, and I saw a saved file from June last year titled 2010-2011. That's the financial year which the January deadline refers to, right? As in, I'm done for another year?

God, that never happens. I must have been really, really bored in June...

Yeah that part of my post didn't really get answered on here but it did on another forum and yes, Jan 31st deadline is for 2010/11. Do some people really take this long to get it done? I know I had feck all self employed earnings in 2010/11 but still, mine was done by end of April I think.

Yep, I just realised I hadn't finished mine. FFS.