Did you find this years tax return more stressful than it needed to be? DE Ball are experienced accountants in Shropshire that understand the implications of either filling out your tax return incorrectly or in a hurry.
Time can pass rather quickly when you are concentrating on your business and if you leave it too late you’ll start racking up hundreds of pounds in fines! Don’t fret as we’ve made a simple 5 step reminder for your next tax return, so you can be sure that your ahead of game and ready for whatever the next twelve months can throw at you.
How did your tax return go?
1. Get an Online HMRC Account
We’ll cover this in point three also, but we can’t stress enough how important it is to get an online account at HMRC. You’ll know this if you’ve tried to phone them but it really is the quickest way to contact and submit your forms.
It is also worth noting though it can take anywhere up to 7 days to create your account and get your activation code through! Which is all the more reason to create one as soon as possible if you are going to!
2. Gather ALL your paperwork
We can’t tell you the amount of times we have people completing their forms late and don’t have anything together. Here is what you’ll need:
- P60 from your employer for income.
- P45 if you have left a job in the tax year.
- P9 or P11 detailing your benefits & expenses.
- Details of: Interest from Bank Accounts/Dividends from Investments/Other Income.
3. Don’t call HMRC
As we’ve said at the start, and more importantly if you want to keep your sanity, do not call HMRC. Statistics show that in 2015 they only answered half of the incoming calls and of the calls answered, it took a third of the callers over 15 minutes to get help from an employee. Though their phone service is lacking the HMRC website has a great FAQ and query section which is great for common or quick concerns.
4. Use an accountant
There are plenty of articles and websites out there that will list the ways you can make filling out your tax return pain free and easy, but business owners barely have enough time to do so as it is. If you don’t have an accountant already attached to your business why not outsource the hassle to people who do it everyday? Simply drop all your forms off and sit back as someone else takes the hassle.
5. Learn from your mistakes
Why not create a simple spreadsheet detailing your income and outgoing each month so always have a rough idea of your final tax figure. Keep your bank statements together and any business related receipts. It’s also dead easy to create a savings account just for your taxes! That way you can pay in as much as you want each month and know that you’re at least putting something aside.
This 5 step plan will hopefully help you this year, if you require any further help do not hesitate to contact DE Ball via their website!