A. You should contact your local Tax Office. You have to tell us if you get any income that should be taxed (ie taxable income or capital gains that have not been fully taxed at source) and that we might not know about. You must do this by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you received the income. We may or may not need to send you a Tax Return - some taxpayers will be able to pay the right amount of tax through an adjustment to their PAYE code.
If you miss that date, tell us straight away as the amount of tax that has not been paid at the following 31 January will affect any penalties you may have to pay.
A. If you are sent a Tax Return you must complete and return it on time. The law says that any person may be required by notice to make a return of income and for this reason your Tax Return asks for full details of all your Income and Capital Gains.
A. Yes - you can use our Self Assessment Online service to send Self Assessment Tax Returns for Individuals (SA100), Partnerships (SA800), Trust and Estate (SA900) and supplementary pages over the internet.
You cannot use the service:
A. Decide if you want to send your Tax Return over the Internet. For more information and a step by step process on how to enrol for Self Assessment Online
If you haven't already made a start on your return then
1. Check if you need any supplementary pages that we have not sent you. If you do, contact the Self Assessment Orderline on Tel 0845 9000 404 (if you are calling from abroad please phone Tel +44 161 930 8331) and they will send them to you. Alternatively, you can download the Tax Returns and Notes from this site.
2. Look through the return and read the Tax Return Guide, which comes with it - this will help explain how to complete the return. The guide will also tell you about the available Helpsheets you can order from the Self Assessment Orderline on Tel 0845 9 000 404 (if you are calling from abroad please phone Tel +44 161 930 8331) or download from the Tax Returns and Notes pages.
3. Get all the information together that you need to complete the return. If you need any help please telephone your tax office, they will be happy to help you. If you need help out of office hours you can telephone our Self Assessment Helpline on Tel 0845 9000 444.
(If phoning from abroad the telephone number is Tel +44 161 931 9070)
A. No. Just put all of the details from these forms on your Tax Return. You should keep your P60 and copy of form P11D/P9D with the rest of your tax records in case there are any queries about your return.
More information on keeping records can be found in: SA/BK4 - Self Assessment. A general guide to keeping records.
A. Normally you will have the information you need. But if there is something you are not sure of, you should enter your best estimate in the return and tell us why a final figure is not yet available and the date by which you expect to give us the final figures. You should then let us have the correct figure as soon as it's available. You should not leave the relevant box blank, or enter 'details to follow' as your return will be incomplete.
Remember: you must send in your return on time, for information on dates and deadlines, plus a handy chart to print out, see 'Key Dates'.
A. You need to complete your return fully and send it to us by the deadline of your choice.
There are two important dates to remember:
Get your completed Tax Return back to us by 31 October if you want us to:
Remember If the paper return arrives after this deadline you'll be charged an automatic £100 penalty.
This deadline will not apply if you send back your Tax Return online, your tax liability is automatically calculated.
If you want to work out your own tax bill, you have until 31 January to get your Online Tax Return back to us.
If you are not sure of what to put in your return then ask your local HM Revenue & Customs office for help or - outside office hours, call the Self Assessment Helpline on Tel 0845 9000 444 before you send it in.
If you need to put in an estimated figure then you must tell us why and provide a date when you expect to give us the final figure.
If, later, you realise that you have missed something from your return, or need to change something, you have one year from the annual filing date (31 January) to make any changes.
For information on dates and deadlines, plus a handy chart to print out, see Key dates.
If you do make changes, that result in more tax being due, you may have to pay interest.
A. The return and guidance notes will help you or your tax adviser decide what information is required to complete your return and self assess. If you're in doubt about whether additional information needs to be included with the return you can consult your tax adviser or discuss the matter with us.
The return has been designed to enable you to include all the details required to self assess, but you can send in additional information if you consider that it is relevant to your tax liability, and it cannot be entered in the spaces and boxes provided in the return. We will accept any additional information sent in with the return, but recommend that you provide an explanation of why you think its relevant.
A. Personal Allowances are not transferable. Unused allowances which could be transferred are Blind Persons Allowance and Married Couples Allowance. If your spouse is eligible to claim these allowances, and your spouse did not have sufficient income in the relevant year to use up the allowance, the balance can be transferred. Please contact your Inland Revenue office if in any doubt.
A. No. The Personal Allowance is only available for relief against Income Tax not Capital Gains Tax.
A. You are responsible for the accuracy of your return. If you disagree with the information provided by your employer or bank, you should include the information that you think is correct. You should not delay in sending your return because you cannot agree with your employer or bank over particular figures.
A. It's an arrangement an employer has with the tax office. It saves you the trouble of declaring those expenses covered under the dispensation, and then making a claim for the same amount of allowable expenses you've paid out.
A. No. All self employed taxpayers must complete page SE3 where appropriate.
A. Please refer to the notes on Self Employment SEN7 that gives details of the most common allowable or disallowable expenses.
A. No. The new Tax Return has been designed to enable the vast majority of taxpayers to provide all the information we need without accounts and computations. For example; we will ask you to put your accounts information in a special section of the return called 'Standard Accounts Information'.
Although we will not normally request accounts, this does not mean that you cannot send in accounts with the return if you want to, for example they may contain additional information you would like us to see.
It is our view that accounts are unlikely to provide us with additional information unless your business is particularly large or complex. For this reason we only ask for accounts and computations for partnerships whose turnover is £15 million or more.
But if you are in a partnership whose turnover is £15 million or more, you must send in your accounts instead of completing the Standard Accounting Information.
A. Just send the documents asked for in the return. For example if you're a subcontractor send your forms CIS25.
A. You should normally send your Tax Return to the address on the front of the form. This will usually be headed Officer in Charge. If your tax office has changed since your Tax Return was issued you should return it to you current office. You can also hand it in at any HM Revenue & Customs Enquiry Centre or local HM Revenue & Customs office if more convenient.
A. Anyone issued with a Tax Return is required to complete it unless, exceptionally, it has been issued in error.
The vast majority of taxpayers are not sent Self Assessment Tax Returns, as they have relatively straightforward tax affairs and their tax is deducted at source by their employers or pension providers through the PAYE system. However, we do need annual returns from certain types of taxpayers, whose tax affairs are more complicated.
The guidelines we operate in sending Tax Returns to individuals have recently changed. In future some people who previously completed them may no longer be sent returns. Anyone can continue to complete Tax Returns if they wish.
The new guidelines will apply to Tax Returns for the 2004-05 tax year onwards. They do not apply to Tax Returns issued for the tax year 2003-04 and earlier. The guidelines are designed to ensure we issue returns only to those who need them. Once issued, a return for any year must be completed unless (exceptionally) it has been issued in error.
Further details can be found in the new guidelines for Self Assessment Tax Returns
