Tax return

[Paddington23]

Anyone else doing a last minute tax return laptops being slow and having to get all my receipts together

Yeah. Been saying every single week since last April that I will definitely do it this week. Like every other year. This is hopefully the last year I have to do one and I can't say I'll miss it.

I’m having to do self-assessment for the first time. It’s been a bit of a nightmare. Don’t have a current passport and have lost my last P60. As a result it took me over three weeks just to prove my identity so I could access the system. Still have to do the actual return...

Did mine on Saturday. I always build it up in my head to be this massive job and it took about an hour and a half!

Last minute? We still have 10 days! 😁😁

I don't have to do this but in future I might...

really stupid question, when you fill in self assessment online, do you have to scan in paperwork etc?

No you just have to I put some numbers which you hope are correct

Did mine yesterday, I’m doing the next one in April.

Thanks op
I'm looking to freelance soon and my neighbour already does....she uses an accountant for her tax return and told me the accountant makes her provide invoices and statements etc and it's an online portal etc

....I sat there listening politely but thought, what's the point of paying an accountant if you have to do all that....might as well just submit the tax return yourself!

My accountant has already prepared mine provisionally and I sat down to check the figures tonight. One small error which needs tweaking - hopefully easy enough to sort in the next 10 days!

I should probably duck for these questions, but as I expect to be doing this in future....

why don't people do them in earlier - is it because of accruals etc?

also, why would you use an accountant if you have to check the figures, is the HMRC system that bad? (I can totally believe it if it is!)

I retired last year and submitted my last ever one 3 weeks ago. What a fantastic feeling after 24 years x

Borntobeamum I was expecting an Irene Cara gif there....

congratulations on retirement.

Got as far as resting my password and now I need a reference number for partnership which hasn’t been provided by family membe

DP is currently doing his.

Every other sentence to me is ‘check this’ ‘where’s that’ ‘what did I buy at X for Z’.

Don’t even get me started on logging in!

This is me usually. However this year I did it in October. I really would recommend it, it's been so nice to having it at the back of mind over Christmas and NY.

@grace212 My accountant is that bad! I picked up that they'd failed to include one source of income on my form, which I had told them about! Only a couple of hundred quid, but the Revenue would blame me, not my accountant, if the error were picked up by them in future!

The point of an accountant is that they are aware of current legislation and ensure that you are claiming everything you can.

Of course they need all of your documentation to be able to prepare the return.

Many people think taxes are easy, but the reality is for most people they miss things that an accountant would pick up.

That's what we train for many years for !

@RightOcciputAnterior

that's annoying. I tend to think they will work with the info they are given, so as any freelance work will be relatively simple for me, cost wise, I'll give it a bash on my own.

so I'll be learning all about it...eek!