What Period Does The Self Assesment Form Cover ?

[Thunderchild]

I've just registered for self assessment as I'm working self employed as well as employed full time. Now i gather that I can fill in a self assessment form by the 31st of Jan but if it was on paper it had to be done in october. Do I gather correctly that it covers the tax year so having started self employment in November this year I will have to fill it in next october (2013) to January (2014) ?

I know it sounds mad asking this but the HMRC website is pretty useless for furnishing a complete picture to a newcomer as it breaks everything down into tiny bits and spreads them all over the website in a silly attempt to cater for everyones circumstances but the result is more like one of those books with the alternative endings.......

Merry Xmas everyone.

[buildersmate]

That's correct.
If you've only just started as self-employed in the current tax year, your SE income return follows the same timing as your PAYE - i.e. SE income from 6th April 2012 to 5th April 2013. You then have until October 2013 to complete a SE return on those earnings if you are doing it on paper and sending it HMRC, or 31st January 2014 if you are making a filed return on computer.

The deadline for paying any tax due is 31st January 2014 - the same date as the computer filing date.

In the following tax years of SE, you may have to make a partial, estimated tax payment 'on account' in July 2014 based on an assessment of the tax due for the year ending 5th April 2014.

[RocW]

The tax year ends on 5th April so you should be completing a Self Assessment return for the year ended 05/04/2012. This will not cover any of your self employment so your earnings will be as your P60 for the 2011/12 tax year.

Next year you will need to fill in an SAR for the 2012/13 tax year which must include the first period of your self employed earnings - from whenever you started in November up to 05/04/2013

This presumes that you have not formed a limited company to employ you. If you have, different rules will apply.

HMRC's website is not a lot of use unless you know your way around it and if you do, you probably know enough not to want to use it. It might be worth having a chat with an accountant. Most accountants will give you an hour's consultation free.

[Skyline D]

Just to counter Roc's answer a little, I doubt very much that you need to do a tax return for the year to April 2012. You weren't self employed at the time and weren't sent one to complete presumably. You only need to do one if specifically asked to do so for some reason. You will need to do one for the year to April 2013 though obviously as the others have already said.

[Thunderchild]

Thanks for the answers guys, the ruddy "notify me of replies" never worked.

Yes i started in November 2012 so I guess my first will be the end of this year.

I'm a sole trader

[boxtops]

You'll need to do it for the period ending 5-4-2013 - not before.

[dotty.]

the forms become available mid to late april and if you fill them in and get them back straight away you should get your rebate by end of may, we do that every year. why wait until october if they owe you tax back?

[DaisyNonna]

Why does the government keep expecting the public to do its job?

[dotty.]

we don;t want them to do it for us for god's sake, they'll make a mistake, i can add up better than most of the drelbs they employ

[Thunderchild]

HMRC is one of the more incompetent departments in my view, as a general employee on PAYE I've been over charged and they have sent letters to my old address that was luckily my dad's after I filled in a form at work from HMRC to confirm my details.

[adrianben]

If you are employed full time then you are paying tax through PAYE. Why bother telling the taxman about your extra income ? I you were an MP you wouldn't bother !

[boxtops]

They catch up, though, adrian, if you are paid self-employed too.

[Thunderchild]

unfortunately not being an MP means I should be abiding by the law, I have "dodged" for a little while already but starting my own website is sort of a dead give away and you know what they are life, defrauding a tenner gets you jail, defrauding a few million gets you into the government !

[Peter Pedant]

Accountants are there for a reason:
they save you money

unless your income is peanuts - wh it cd be
I would keep your own books and then hire an accountant.

Self employed pay 2% of the govt tax intake
that is not - they pay 2% tax - alot are like starbucks [a plc] and pay no tax at all - but of all the moolah the govt gets thro tax, 2% comes from the self employed

and they pay 2% not by asking us on AB how to do it, they do it by hiring an acct. His fees are tax deductible by the way.

I have seen no one say you can deem your own s/e tax year - mine is May 1st to May 1st (Ithink) - I left tht to my acctountant. - perhaps they have stopped it - there is a lot of talk about real-time information and taxing and i have to say I pay someone to keep up with tax rules and dont do it myself.

this the best advice I can give

[Thunderchild]

with 50 quid profit a month an accountant is hardly worth it, I'm just trying to make sure I get the basics right that HMRC are very bad at explaining.