Getting Ready for your Self-assessment Filing
Submitting your self-assessment in April might seem strange for some people, but I love being prepared :-).
We are ready, so let's get your self-assessment done and dusted so that 2022 can be awesome!
I would like to encourage all our lovely clients to get their self-assessment done as soon as possible.
This will help you with:
Cash Planning if you owe money to HMRC
Getting your refund sooner
Claim back all your expenses sooner
Give yourself more time to prepare and help you rest easy.
By filing your return early, doesn’t mean that you need to pay the tax sooner, It simply gives you time to prepare and budget
How early can I submit my Self Assessment tax return?
A Self Assessment return for a particular year can be submitted from the day after that tax year ends.
For example:
The end of the 2021-22 tax year is 5th April 2022.
A tax return for the 2021-22 tax year can be submitted from 6th April 2022 onwards.
Expenses you can claim if you are a sole trader and filing a self-assessment are:
Working from home expenses (gas and electricity, metered water, business phone calls including broadband)
Office expenses i.e. stationery, phone calls
Travel costs - for example fuel, parking, train, bus fares
Clothing expenses i.e. uniforms
Staff costs - Salaries or subcontractors
Stock if you buy and sell items as part of your trade
Financial costs i.e. bank charges or insurance
Rental or business premises costs - heating, lighting and business rates
Advertising and marketing i.e. website costs, facebook etc
Training courses - related to your business
You can also claim capital allowances on items like equipment, machinery and business vehicles. Remember that you can only claim expenses if you use the expense as part of your business i.e. in the production of income.
If you have not kept record of your business expenses you may in certain cases use simplified expenses for things like vehicles, working from home or if you are living on your business premises.
If you are employed and working from home on a regular basis due to Covid, you may claim home office expenses as a deduction. You can either use the simplified expense method or the exact amount. The simplified expense method is £6 per week. If you use the exact cost method, you will need to keep bills, contracts and receipts and only claim the business office portion that is being used as an office.
Also, don’t forget about your gift-aid payments if you are filing your self-assessment and you are a higher income taxpayer.
If you would like us to prepare your self-assessment, please send us the following information:
Your P60 if you have been employed or earned pension income
Your P11D if you received any additional benefits that your employed paid i.e
Medical insurance
Asset transferred from the company to you
Vouchers and credit cards
Accommodation
Cars and car fuel including Vans
Interest free or low interest loans
No charge or low charge services supplied
Other expenses paid by your employer and not paid by you that is seen as a benefit to you
Confirmation that you have worked from home and when this started. You should also decide whether you wish to claim the assumed home office expenses of £6 a week or the exact costs. You can see if you can claim home office working with the following checker.
If you had to buy equipment to be able to work from home, please provide the invoices in support of this expense. This includes computers, desks, and homeworking set-up costs. This equipment must only have been used for work purposes; if used for private purposes, an adjustment will have to be made. You can not claim this deduction for cars, motorcycles, or bicycles.
If you received the SEISS grant, please make sure you send this to use. We do not necessarily know if you have claimed and if HMRC reviews the assessment, an additional assessment will be raised, and this will just cause problems.
Dividend income from investments or limited company shareholding
Untaxed and taxable interest income on investments and or bank accounts
Rental income and expenses if you have a buy to let property:
Rental income
Expenses including landlord insurance, repairs, and maintenance etc
Mortgage interest paid. Please remember that interest on mortgage has a restriction going forward - Restricting finance cost relief for individual landlords. If you have a capital and interest repayment mortgage, please kindly send us the schedule showing the split between interest and capital.
Sole trader income and expenses. This includes all expenses relating to running the business. Please kindly send us all expenses not paid from the business account as well as the bank statements of the business bank account. Please remember that proof of the expense must be provided if required and all capital assets acquired, invoices should be sent as well.
Foreign income and gains i.e. foreign properties rented out or income received from investments
Information on business partnerships you may have and if necessary, the profit and loss and percentage split.
Capital Gains from sale of properties or investments.
Pension Fund contributions that qualify for tax deductions.
Gift Aid deductions – This is especially relevant to higher tax rate payers in Scotland. See more information on HMRC’s website.
Other relevant income received that does not fall in any of the above categories.
I also want to encourage people to remember that if they receive tax credits or their partner receives tax credits to let us know so that we can assess if they should still claim tax credits.
So, if like us, you find the idea of getting your assessment done and dusted as soon as possible - please get in touch! We’re ready and waiting to help and to answer any questions you may have.