Self Assessment Tax Return 2025/26: What You Need + How We Help

If you’re thinking about your Self Assessment tax return 2025/26, April is the perfect time to get organised early. The tax year runs from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026, and once the year ends, you can start preparing your return right away — which means less stress, fewer surprises, and better tax planning.

At Anlo, we take the worry, anxiety and time out of managing your tax. We’re not the kind of accountants who only appear once a year — we’re here to support you, talk things through, and make the whole Self Assessment process feel a lot more manageable.

How we help with your Self Assessment tax return

Filing a return can feel straightforward until HMRC asks questions that don’t quite match real life — especially if you have more than one income stream. We help you understand what needs to be included, make sure everything is accurate and compliant, and ensure you claim every legitimate allowance and relief available to you.

We regularly support people who are company directors, landlords, self‑employed, earning dividends or investment income, receiving foreign income, or simply dealing with a more complex personal tax position than PAYE alone.

Self Assessment checklist: what information we need from you

The simplest way to think about it is: personal details + income + expenses + “extras” like pensions, donations, gains, and overseas items. Here’s a clear tax return checklist UK clients can follow.

1) Personal details (so we match HMRC’s records)

• Full name, National Insurance number, current address and contact details

• Your UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference), if you have one

• If it’s your first time with Anlo: your previous tax return(s) if available

2) Employment income (if applicable)

• P60 (and P45 if you changed jobs)

• P11D (benefits in kind), if relevant

• Share based pay-outs

3) Self‑employment / sole trader income

• Income records (invoices / sales summaries) and expense records (receipts, invoices)

• Bank statements for the year (downloading to Excel is a great start)

4) Rental / property income (landlords)

• Rental statements or rent summaries, plus property expenses (repairs, insurance, maintenance)

• Details of each property (and ownership splits if jointly owned)

5) Dividends, savings and investment income

• Dividend vouchers / dividend statements

• Savings interest statements (where relevant)

• Crypto currency

6) Pensions (important for March planning)

If you’ve made personal pension contributions (or plan to top up before the year end), please send:

• Pension contribution statements and confirmations for the year

• Details HMRC typically needs to support a relief claim (provider, pension type, amounts, and proof)
  If you complete a Self Assessment return, pension tax relief is claimed through the return (not via the separate online claim route).

7) Other items people often forget

• Gift Aid donations

• Student loan information (if relevant)

• Capital gains details (asset sales, dates, proceeds, costs)

• Foreign income / overseas interest / dividends / rental

March 2026 tax planning: what to consider before 5 April

March is when we like to have a proper planning conversation — because once you hit the end of the tax year (5 April 2026), some opportunities disappear.

A few common examples we talk through with clients:

• Whether additional pension contributions before 5 April 2026 might be tax‑efficient (and what evidence you’ll need)

• Making sure Gift Aid donations are properly captured

• A last tidy‑up of allowable expenses for self‑employed clients so nothing legitimate is missed

• Cashflow planning for what’s coming, so January doesn’t feel like a shock

If you want a Self Assessment accountant in Edinburgh who will keep this simple, help you stay compliant, and talk you through the decisions (not just submit forms), we’d love to help.

Book a free consultation and we’ll tell you exactly what we need based on your situation — then we’ll take it from there.