Service
Self Assessment handled early, not on 31 January.
Personal tax returns for directors, sole traders, partners and landlords. We prepare the return, explain what you owe and when, and file it well before the deadline.
- SA100 and supplementary pages
- Payments on account explained
- Filed early so you can budget
Overview
Who needs to file a return
HMRC requires a Self Assessment return from a range of people, and the criteria change from time to time. You will typically need one if you are self-employed, a partner in a partnership, receive rental or significant untaxed income, or have income and circumstances that fall outside what PAYE can handle on its own.
Company directors are often told they must file automatically. That is not always accurate, and it depends on your income. What matters is your actual position, which we will check rather than assume.
What you get
What is included
A complete return, prepared from your records and reviewed with you before submission.
Return preparation
Your main return plus the supplementary pages that apply, whether that is self-employment, property, employment, dividends or capital gains.
A clear tax summary
A plain summary of what you owe, what each element relates to and the dates each payment falls due.
Filing with HMRC
Electronic submission once you have approved the figures, with confirmation and a copy for your records.
Payment reminders
Reminders ahead of both the January and July dates, so a payment on account does not arrive as a surprise.
HMRC correspondence
Where you have authorised us to act, we deal with routine HMRC queries about the return on your behalf.
More detail
Payments on account, explained once and properly
Payments on account catch out almost everyone in their first year of self-employment. If your tax bill exceeds a certain amount, HMRC asks you to pay towards next year in two instalments, in January and July, on top of settling the year just gone.
In practice this means the first January can involve paying substantially more than the tax due for that year alone. It is not an extra tax, it is timing, but knowing about it in November is a great deal more comfortable than discovering it in January. We calculate it as soon as your return is prepared and tell you the figures for both dates.
What we need from you
The list depends on your sources of income, but a typical return draws on the following.
- Self-employment income and expense records, or accounts if we prepare them
- P60, P45 and P11D forms from any employment
- Rental income and associated costs, including mortgage interest details
- Bank and building society interest, dividends and other investment income
- Pension contributions and Gift Aid donations made personally
- Details of any assets sold during the year
- Your Unique Taxpayer Reference and, if you have one, your student loan plan type
Process
How we run it
Deliberately front-loaded, so the work is finished long before the deadline.
Step 01: Request in the autumn
We send a tailored list of what we need shortly after the tax year ends.
Step 02: Prepared and queried
The return is drafted and any questions come to you in one batch.
Step 03: You approve
You see the figures, the tax due and the payment dates before we file anything.
Step 04: Filed and confirmed
We submit the return and send you the confirmation and a copy to keep.
Questions
Common questions
If something is not covered here, ask us directly and we will give you a straight answer.
Register with HMRC for Self Assessment, which triggers the issue of a Unique Taxpayer Reference. That process takes time and has its own deadline, so it is worth doing as soon as you know you will need to file. We can guide you through it.
File as soon as you can. Penalties generally increase the longer a return remains outstanding, so acting quickly limits the cost. If you have a reasonable excuse, there is a process for appealing a penalty, and we can help you put that forward.
Not automatically. It depends on your income and how it is taxed. We will look at your actual circumstances and tell you whether a return is required rather than filing one unnecessarily.
Yes. Additional returns can be added to your monthly arrangement, and the quote calculator lets you include them so the figure you see reflects everyone who needs one.
Get your return out of the way early.
See an indicative monthly figure that includes the number of returns you actually need.