Ship of Fools: The Taxman Cometh (UK Version)

Thread: The Taxman Cometh (UK Version) Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

I can't be the only UK Shippie still to do my tax return can I? Here's the place for mutual support and procrastination....

It's not the doing of the actual return that take the time. It's the gathering together of all the information. Each year I swear I'll be more organised in future.

(For my company - see sig - it's all much more organised, thanks to outsourcing the bookkeeping & accounting. This is my self-assessment return which also includes other self-employment.)

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

We were very fortunate that we left the UK when we did - just before everybody started having to do their own tax-returns.

I still don't really understand how it works, especially to people who work for just one employer and have their taxes deducted by PAYE.

Posted by Japes (# 5358) on :

I have done mine - but always happy to support those who haven't as I have done it in the last week in previous years!

Piglet, if all your tax is done through your employment and PAYE you don't have to do a tax return.

Mine is relatively simple, as it's only on my organist earnings and a tiny bit of piano teaching. Last year's took a bit longer as I changed main employment, so filling in all the past employment details took more time. (And finding the P60s and P45s - which inexplicably had hidden themselves behind the previous years!)

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

I'm normally very disorganised and despite all my good intentions leave it until 30th January to do it which puts me into a total frenzy. This year I was very virtuous (IOW I was bored one day) so submitted my return in October. I was even more virtuous in that I actually paid the bill last week instead of leaving it until the last minute like i normally do.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

We run a small cottage industry making tea light holders (yes, really) we sell at least two a day now!

So the tax man beconneth - hey hum, pig's bum.

My best friend is a tax collector and her husband a tax inspector!

Here is a link to our 'shop'. I am in charge of marketing and admin, Mr Boogs is the craftsman [Smile]

[ 24. January 2016, 08:01: Message edited by: Boogie ]

Posted by Arethosemyfeet (# 17047) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
We were very fortunate that we left the UK when we did - just before everybody started having to do their own tax-returns.

I and most other employed people don't have to file a tax return.

Posted by Beenster (# 242) on :

I have a box which is worth it's weight in gold. It's one of those box file things. I have some plastic folders. Whenever i get a piece of paper which is relevant - it goes in the box. It takes 10 seconds perhaps of my life at the time.

I can't imagine what my tax return would be like without the box.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Last year I tried to contact the tax man with a query. There was nothing on the website that I could find to address it, and none of the options on the telephone help line were even close (and, no option to go straight to an operator without selecting one of the specific subject areas). Since I now work two part time jobs, one in the UK and one in Japan, in both cases paying tax through PAYE (and the Japanese equivalent) I needed to know whether I would need to fill in any form of paper work. I'm happy that as I'm paying tax on my income in both places that I should be OK in the amount I've paid to HMRC, but was expecting there to be some form of notification of my changed circumstances needed.

Prior to that my Japanese employer had given me the option, under an international treaty obligation, to allow me to pay tax in the UK on income in Japan. There was no way of getting the information from HMRC about how to do that either - but since I don't consider tax dodging to be right (even if legal) I wasn't too concerned about following that up.

But, as HMRC decided not to make it easy to find out about such things I've just left it to my UK employer to pay my tax via PAYE. I did, however, get a tax refund because they overpaid.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

HMRC sent me a tax notice of the amount paid in 2014.

Well when I say sent, they sent it to an address I have not lived in for twenty years (fortunately my parents do)!

No clue how to change this and as I am paye I assumed my employer did when I moved.

Jengie

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Beenster:
I have a box which is worth it's weight in gold. It's one of those box file things. I have some plastic folders. Whenever i get a piece of paper which is relevant - it goes in the box. It takes 10 seconds perhaps of my life at the time.

I can't imagine what my tax return would be like without the box.

I have a box too.

I fall down on the "whenever I have a piece of paper that is relevant it goes in the box" part of the equation. Many things go in, but not all which remain scattered about.

Plus of course there are all the things (receipts, bills etc) that are online and not on pieces of paper.

[ 24. January 2016, 11:28: Message edited by: Yangtze ]

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :

1. Get a large ring back folder. Buy some coloured dividers

2. Label said dividers "Income" Expenditure" etc.

3. Set up an excel spreadsheet - examples available on request

4. Each time you incur a charge and/or make any money, enter on the spreadsheet. A paper entry for the item must be filed into the ring folder: if there's no paper then make up a note referring to the item.

5. Attach a copy of a bank account print out for each piece of paper/spreadsheet entry. This identifies the source of the item. DO IT ON THE DAY THE EXPENSE/SALE HAPPENS DON@T LEAVE IT

6. make sure you record all expenditure and income even if its personal - eso if you only have one bank account. It pays to take copies of cheques given to you say for birthday/christmas. Keep them in the same file as above, noted as to origi. Failure to do that will result in HMRC treating them as income even if they were birthday gifts - but which you can't prove

7. The speardsheet should have inpout totals relating to account and HMRC requirements.

8. ABOVE ALL DO IT DAILY AND PUT EVERYTHING IN THRERE (OR A COPY) WHENEVER A FINANCIAL OCCURS: THAT WAY YOU CAN DO YOUR RETURN QUICKLY AS WELL AS YOUR ACCOUNTS [I have a house let, usual employment, self employment and a seperate pension: my return takes me typically 20 minutes and I've usually submittted by 20th April - being only delayed by waiting for 3 P60's]

9. If the revenue do a investigation on you - these are increasing - they'll ask for the evidence so it makes sense to keep it. Equally it makes sense to make the entries on the day they occur - good accounts and business practice.

Posted by Offeiriad (# 14031) on :

Aren't people virtuous?

My self-assessment forms used to require maybe a maximum of four figures and a signature. They would sit in my in-tray, where would eye one another warily for several months.

Finally a week before the deadline (I was never a last-minute type, perish the thought!) I would take the forms out of the plastic wrapper. I would check them warily in case they had grown teeth, or that any had turned to compost, then sit down with a mug of tea and Do The Deed for the year.

Easy, really! Worked for me, anyhow....

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

I submitted mine earlier this month, and they owe me a tax refund. Then a few days later I realised I had claimed for business mileage wrongly, corrected the form, resubmitted, they still owe me money but not quite as much. Then few more days later I received a payment from them in my bank account of the first (higher) amount, followed by a letter in the post to confirm this payment. Not sure if/when/how they will claw back the £50 or so that I now owe them.

Also I had a gripe with the online version of the form, which did not allow me to record my accounts in the way that the instructions for the paper version of the form indicated - basically I had a loss against property lettings income, which I could offset against a profit in furnished holiday lettings income, but there was nowhere in the online form to reduce the loss carried forward as a result of this.

Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :

I am going to have to submit a form for the first time next year (I started renting out my flat in April last year, having failed to sell it). I had such good intentions of keeping all my notes and receipts somewhere safe and together. A major job for this year is unearthing them all and doing that before January 2017. I am confident they are all still in the house, and at least I don't have masses of them as it's done by an agency for the most part. Hopefully this will coincide with the intended declutter, and 2016 will be the year of minimal Stuff.

I am still toying with the idea of on-the-side self-employment as well as my day job. So it will be good to get things in order before I do anything about that.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

I am waiting until April when my next tax return comes in. Then I will start getting my figures together - hopefully get my return in before this summer.

Sorry.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

I'm fortunate to have just one job (well under £100,000), no pension, no property to let and I can carry my savings in moderate notes in a wallet, so I don't need to submit a return. If anyone is unsure HMRC has this useful checklist.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

Thank you Sioni, that's helpful.

Posted by mrs whibley (# 4798) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
HMRC sent me a tax notice of the amount paid in 2014.

Well when I say sent, they sent it to an address I have not lived in for twenty years (fortunately my parents do)!

No clue how to change this and as I am paye I assumed my employer did when I moved.

Jengie

Phone HMRC - although this might not be the best time of year! Your employer should (probably) have told them, but the problem with employers can be a rather rigid adherence to the Data Protection Act of which their employees are not aware. Do not assume that just because you told any of a. Your manager/department b. Your HR dept c. Your payroll dept or c. your Occ Heath dept that they have felt obliged, or indeed able, to pass the info on. It tends to be Payroll who inform HMRC. IME with the NHS anyway.

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

Oh Exclamation Mark, I don't disagree with the principle of what you are saying needs to be done, but I know myself well enough to know that that level of daily organisation ain't never going to happen!

I keep track of my invoices when they go out and the payments when they come in, attempt as far as possible (see above for where this falls down) to corral all relevant documentation (receipts, dividend info, paper bank statements etc etc) into one place and have good intentions of sorting through it into the kind of file you suggest more often than once a year. Digital info (bills, online bank statements, online bank receipts etc) get found and filed at the same time.

I'm not as disorganised as I'm making out - I do have good spreadsheets for example - but I"m not a 'keep on top of it daily' person either.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

Last year I made a mistake and accidentally underpaid. During the summer, I received a letter from HMRC alerting me to this fact and advising that I owed them the grand sum of £0.01

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

I filed my return for the first time last week, fortified by a cup of tea in one hand, chocolate in the other and surrounded by bits of paper.

I was very glad when it was done and dusted relatively painlessly. I don't have complicated business dealings, but had been stewing about it for a little while.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
... I received a letter from HMRC alerting me to this fact and advising that I owed them the grand sum of £0.01

Did you have to pay it by cheque or Direct Debit? [Big Grin]

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

I knew someone who taped a pile of small denomination coins to a piece of paper and dropped it in to head office of the company sending the bill.

One cent coins are no longer in use down here, but I could possibly find one somewhere. . You could perhaps do something similar.

Don't forget to ask for a receipt

[ 25. January 2016, 04:14: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

They were gracious enough to allow me to carry the balance over to the next bill without charging me interest. Now that's what I call service!

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

[tangent]
A friend of ours felt that he'd been shabbily treated by an ordinary high-street bank (something to do with being charged a month's interest for being overdrawn for about ten minutes, IIRC). He transferred his money to an account with an on-line bank (they were the New Big Thing at the time), but kept £10 in the high-street bank, just so that they would be obliged to send him a statement every month and pay him interest.
[/tangent]

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
[tangent]
A friend of ours felt that he'd been shabbily treated by an ordinary high-street bank (something to do with being charged a month's interest for being overdrawn for about ten minutes, IIRC). He transferred his money to an account with an on-line bank (they were the New Big Thing at the time), but kept £10 in the high-street bank, just so that they would be obliged to send him a statement every month and pay him interest.
[/tangent]

Continuing the tangent, there was a similar case where the disgruntled customer changed his name to "[name of bank] PLC are fascist bastards" and insisted they sent a cheque for the very small outstanding balance made out to his new name

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

Spike that's brilliant.

Thanks to a university putting me on their payroll for exactly one hour (they then gave me a P45) in order to pay me for a lecture, I now have all sorts of weird things going on in my self-assessement re PAYE - WHICH I DO NOT HAVE AS I AM NOT EMPLOYED.

I think I will have to call them to try and get it sorted. They keep insisting I have underpaid by zero pounds and zero pence and asking what I am going to do about this.

In other news, I have now submitted and paid. Oh yes.

[ 25. January 2016, 21:00: Message edited by: Yangtze ]

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Paid zero pounds and zero pence? Well done. How did you manage that Yangtze?

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

With a blank cheque? [Paranoid]

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
Last year I made a mistake and accidentally underpaid. During the summer, I received a letter from HMRC alerting me to this fact and advising that I owed them the grand sum of £0.01

Him indoors, was sent prceedings letters by the tax man once, for not paying a debt of 12p.

Even though he had been told on the phone, by a real human being, not to pay as it was not worth the processing- their computer system just couldn't cope with a non payment

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

Zaccheus, I love the fact you have posted on this thread. Most appropriate.

The taxman cometh indeed.

:-)

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
Last year I made a mistake and accidentally underpaid. During the summer, I received a letter from HMRC alerting me to this fact and advising that I owed them the grand sum of £0.01

With me it was the other way round. I argued with HMRC over whether they had the power to round up to the nearest penny. They couldn't prove they could so owed me 0.01p. I issues proceedings for the same.

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:
Zaccheus, I love the fact you have posted on this thread. Most appropriate.

The taxman cometh indeed.

:-)

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

I'm probably being paranoid....
I submitted my tax return online on 24 Jan and I have an e-mail acknowledgement headed "Successful receipt of online submission" with a reference number.

On 26 Jan I received an e-mail reminder, which said that I could ignore the reminder if I'd submitted within the previous 24 hours. I'd submitted more than 24 hours earlier, but I ignored the reminder anyway.

I've had another e-mail reminder today, telling me to act now to avoid a penalty.

Are these reminders going to everybody, regardless of whether they've submitted or not?

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

This is starting to look like Gilliam's Brazil.

Next you'll be getting an e-mail: "ignore all previous e-mails, including this one."

Posted by Hazey*Jane (# 8754) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
I'm probably being paranoid....
I submitted my tax return online on 24 Jan and I have an e-mail acknowledgement headed "Successful receipt of online submission" with a reference number.

On 26 Jan I received an e-mail reminder, which said that I could ignore the reminder if I'd submitted within the previous 24 hours. I'd submitted more than 24 hours earlier, but I ignored the reminder anyway.

I've had another e-mail reminder today, telling me to act now to avoid a penalty.

Are these reminders going to everybody, regardless of whether they've submitted or not?

I had the same experience (including having submitted more than 24 hours before but getting a reminder).

As they've now given me a refund (I'd overpaid) I think all is well. You could always just log in again to triple check it's gone through but you're almost certainly fine.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

I made a small mistake on my first ever tax form (filing a substantial part of income in the wrong section), which meant they wanted me to pay substantially more tax than any other year in my life ... but I have to say the online chat people at HMRC are very helpful and got it fixed very quickly (and, I get some money back from them!).

Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :

The last tax return I had to do was a few years ago now. Somewhere along the line, the figures I input must have been £1 different from what they thought, and it ended up with me owing 16p. Since I'm a last-minute kind of person with these things, there wasn't enough time before it was due to send a cheque, so I think it took me about 45 minutes of stress finding out how I could pay it and getting it all set up! Sixteen stupid pence. [Roll Eyes]

Since then I've been PAYE. Much better!

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