An Income Tax Self Assessment Return will need to be submitted for most people who have earnings over specific thresholds when they earn outside of PAYE. PAYE is when you are paid by an employer and receive a payslip – your employer pays your Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions over to HMRC for you.

The most common reasons for needing to submit a tax returns are:

  • when you run a business as a sole trader and make sales of more than £1000 in the tax year
  • when you own a property that you let out
  • when you own a limited company that you earn a dividend from

Tax Return Deadlines

Self Assessment Tax Returns cover the UK tax year which runs from 6 April to the following 5 April. The HMRC deadline for the return to be submitted is 31 January (almost 10 months after the end of the tax year. However, we like to set an internal deadline of 30th November for all current clients, this ensures minimal stress-inducing last minute panics to get returns submitted and helps with cashflows where our clients have taxes to pay. An earlier internal deadline for current clients also alllows us to help new clients in those final few months up to the deadline, who will be feeling stress about their tax returns

What is MTD ITSA?!

MTD ITSA is a term you might have seen flying around recently, and you will start to see it more as we move in on the start date of April 2024. It stands for “Making Tax Digital – Income Tax Self Assessment”. Making Tax Digital has already been brought in for VAT registered business who’s turnover/sales is over £85,000 in their financial year. Basically it means that HMRC want to receive records digitally through software.

If you currently keep your financial records on paper or spreadsheet, you will need to be aware that over the next few years you will need to be moving across to software. We are a Xero specialist firm, so if you would like to have a chat with us about switching to Xero, we would be more than happy to show you all the benefits of using Xero.

We will publish further information on this during 2022.

How can I talk to you about doing my Income Tax Self Assessment?

We are more than happy to have a chat with you about completing and submitting your tax return, please either give the team a call on the 01489 232 782 to schedule a phone call or Zoom call with Elyse, or you can book into Elyse’s diary online here: Schedule a call with Elyse