The level of stress might be increased as the tax season has arrived and only a few weeks are left. Well, you might be in a hustle to file your taxes to save yourself or your business from unnecessary penalties. More so, if you delay the tax filing, you will bang by a £100 fine, with a further £10 added for every after that up to 90 days, plus interest. But do you know what self-assessment form is?
“A self-assessment tax means any balance tax paid by the assessee on the assessed income after taking TDS and Advance tax into consideration before filing the tax return of income.” Thus, the form needs to be filled with great care and accuracy. So below we’ve gathered top tips to make your self-assessment easier and quicker:
Don’t miss out on filing paper tax return
For filling out paper tax returns the deadline is 31st October. So make sure you never miss out on deadlines as the further online procedure is quite lengthy.
In the online process, you need to register yourself and then you’ll be receiving an activation code that takes 7 working days via post and without this code, you cannot complete your tax return filing. So you need to hurry up and accomplish the filling procedure as soon as possible.
Gather all the documents at a place
When you are about to start with the filling process firstly make sure that you have all the relevant documents at a place to avoid hassles while filling. What crucial documents you’ll require? Let me give a glimpse of documents:
- It will include a P60 form from your employer’s end, presenting your income and the tax you’ve paid on it.
- A P45 form, in case you have left the job within the tax year.
- A P11D or P9D specifying profits and expenses.
- Plus particulars of interest on dividends from investments, income from the bank on building society accounts, and any other income you’ve received during the year.
Don’t call the taxman home
If you want to keep your mind rational, avoid meeting with the taxman. According to research by Public Accounts Committee, HMRC answers only 50% of the phone calls from which over a third of those people whose calls were responded have to wait for 5 minutes to get connected to the right person for their query.
Thus, try to avoid this stress by searching online for the answers to your queries. HMRC’s website has included all the insights related to your queries. More so, they have videos published on the site explaining the entire procedure from how to register to function on your expenses.
Get in touch with an accountant
There are so many websites and blogs on the web that can help you in making the form filling process easier and seamless. But what if you don’t have to fill in any form and no penalties will be imposed? Surprised! Yes, you can do this by outsourcing tax preparation to a professional accountant.
It is one of the most cost-effective and time-saving ways to fill your tax forms with high accuracy and file on time. You can stay relaxed as you know your taxes are in expert hands.
Mistakes teach you so much
If this year you have spent hours searching for documents, bothering about saving accounts or worrying how you are going to pay the taxes on time, then take some crucial steps in advance now to evade the same stress next year.
You can follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Create an excel sheet to detail your income and expenses and keep updating it weekly or monthly.
- Maintain a file that includes all the relevant documents such as bank statements, bills, and crucial tax forms so that you don’t get puzzled while filling the form.
- Open a saving account for your taxes and make you regularly deposit some amount of your income so you’ll have sufficient money to pay your tax bill.
After filing your taxes, if you find some amount left in your saving account you can reward yourself by taking your family member or loved ones on a dinner or lunch. It will be fun!
Conclusion
Filling tax forms is a daunting task but don’t let it distress you. Make use of accessible tools and useful data adhere to rules and if you get trapped, remember that you can always seek help from accountants or outsourcing accounting and financial services outsourcing firms.
This post was written by Tracy Watson. Tracy is an accounting expert at Accounting To Taxes. She has always been a great contributor to the accounting industry as she handles the accounting processes of small and medium businesses worldwide, for years. And being a passionate writer as well she helps businesses with her informative articles.
