ADVICE ON COMPLETING A TAX RETURN

A Chartered Accountant will have a lot of experience with accountancy and tax affairs and can handle all aspects of your tax return on your behalf.  There is often no charge for a first consultation, this allows you to get to know each other a little and lets you explore how they can help with absolutely no obligation. 

If you have relatively straightforward tax affairs and already pay tax from a job or pension income through PAYE (Pay As You Earn) you probably won't need to complete a tax return. But if you're self-employed, a company director or have more complicated tax affairs you may need to complete one.

Filling in the short return
If you have straightforward tax affairs you may qualify for the simpler short tax return. At four pages long, the short tax return is quick and easy to complete. The accompanying help notes are also easy to follow. The paperwork you'll need in order to complete the short return is similar to that for the core pages of the full return.

Key steps for filling in the full tax return
The main tax return has ten core pages, plus extra pages tailored to your needs. If you get the full tax return you'll need to:

• check you've been given the right pages (if it's a paper return)
• collect together all the supporting paperwork you'll need
• complete the core pages
• complete any supplementary pages that apply to you
• send the completed return to your Tax Office within the deadline

You or your accountant can complete the full return online or on paper. If you file online your tax is calculated
automatically on-screen, so you will know what you owe or are owed right away. The return willl also be dealt with by HMRC more quickly.

Remember there are deadlines for sending in your return.

• You must send it back to your Tax Office by 31 January following the year of assessment and so need to have all your records and figures well before that time.
• The earlier published deadline of 30 September applies if you fill in your own return and you don't want to calculate the tax yourself.
• 30 December if you file online and want HMRC, if possible, to collect any tax owed of less than £2000 through your tax code and main employment.

You can also use your tax return to arrange student loan repayments.

Download the full Tax Return Guide From HMRC website. (PDF document, 5,500K, opens new window)