Help With Online Tax Return Please

[boona]

Hi, I really need with a partnership online tax return for 2012 - 2013 please.

Business started 24th March 2013 so only 2 weeks to submit for this particular tax return year, thought it would be easy but Im confused on basically what figures go where!

Total income for this period was £35
Total outgoings is a lot more as the business is bouncy castle and party organisation and the two bouncy castles alone we bought cost £1500 plus I have reciepts for partyware and balloons etc totalling about £200

Any help is appreciated, thankyou in advance

[boona]

Anyone?

[boxtops]

There's a lot of help here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/worksheets/sa150.pdf

but it does say that if you are submitting online, you have until January - it says it's only the paper returns that have to be in by the end of October.

[factor-fiction]

I don't know how HMRC deals with tax relief but as your costs far exceed your income for the year I'd try to spread the cost of the initial outlay over a few years

[The Builder]

Having a small business myself Boona, my first instinct is to wade in with support. The trouble is, you may not want to hear this......... I hardly make any financial moves without first talking to my accountant.

You sound to me as though you really want to make a go of this. You're investing upfront, and you're diligent enough to want to declare everything from the start.

Right now, you think you're just small fry....... accountancy is a luxury that may come later. In fact, at the early stages of a business, professional advice is even more important.

Your capital outlay could be declared in so many ways to help you. Often, it's not simply money versus money out. An accountant will fill you in on things you would never have even considered.

If you plan for the business to be around in the future. Now's the time to set it up right.

Good luck to you :o)

[Buenchico]

Well I've been trying to make sense of the form. (For anyone else who cares to take a look, it's here: www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/sa800.pdf ).

The trick with most tax forms is simply to work out what you can safely leave blank (which, in your case, seems to almost everything!).

Since your annual turnover was less than £77,000 (and, at the current time, can reasonably be assumed to be so if you'd traded for a full year) you can completely ignore page 4 and simply fill in boxes 3.24 to 3.26. (Put your loss in brackets for 3.26 and copy that figure, without the brackets, to 3.84)

Since you're not going to pay any tax anyway, you can safely leave the rest of page 3 blank.

Enter '0' for 3.83 and, if you've not got a balance sheet, leave the rest of page 5 blank.

If there's anything else you need help with, please post again.

Anyway, there's no great rush. The 31st October deadline only applies to paper returns. You've got until 31st January to sort out your online one.

[boona]

Thankyou, I am just doing the spreadsheet now, I have a pile of reciepts which I am submitting onto a spread sheet, may be a silly question but do all the outgoings (bouncy castles, stationery, balloons etc) come under expenses? What does petrol come under please?

[pixie373]

I agree entirely with the builder. My sister and i have a small business. We keep our own books, but pass them over to accountant who does the returns. £200 per return, but she has saved us much more than that, just by knowing what to claim and which way to do it.

[boona]

The returns for this year I will pay an accountant because there will be alot more figures but it doesnt seem worth it on this occassion for the sake of a couple of weeks

[pixie373]

That's probably true. I haven't done one myself, so sorry, can't help.

[boona]

Hi Buenchico,
Im just filling in this tax return and I just wanted to run it past you if ok
3.24 All incoming and expenses (£35 income £1683.35 expenses)
3.25 All expenses (£1683.35)
3.26 - LOSS (what counts as a loss?)
3.83 0
3.84 LOSS

Thanks in advance

[boona]

£1100 was the amount payed out on credit card to buy the bouncy castles to set up the business, should this be included in the expenses?

[DJHawkes]

you coinsider them tools and assets bought for your business and so you offset them at 100% for the first year you got them and then at a reduced percentage in the following years. you carry forward to this years return any loss and so if you say made £5000 clear profit after expenses but had a £2000 loss from lasst year, you then deduct that from profit, with that income you'd pay no tax. You may need an accountant but there is alot of stuff available online , if you run the business from home make sure you divide all household bills including rent or mortgage for the room you have as an office and include all computer equipment used and any part of the internet bill and phone bill. if you are in partnership make a wife a director and pay them if you're making too much profit. (what?)