Anyone else still need to do their tax return?

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

Not just their return but the whole years accounts.

I’m fucked. I will get it done in time, they’re not especially complex, just long winded and a faff. But why do I do this to myself??

I just can’t bring myself to pay an accountant. They charge so much!

We pay £25 a month. He does it all.

Dunno, I do my prep in June, send it to the accountant who invariably does it the last week in January. Does my head in.

You need to get a different accountant.

I’ve made myself a plan for tomorrow to get a good chunk done.

I just can’t bring myself to pay an accountant. They charge so much!
My DH is an accountant, he takes the view that a good account will save you as much as they charge you. And yes he’s doing my self assessment this year.

he takes the view that a good account will save you as much as they charge you.

How do you mean?

You need to get a different accountant.

It's a lot of hassle though, briefing them on the business etc, not to mention finding one in the first place.

I can honestly say she's never saved me any money, I know enough about how tax works to make sure I include everything she needs from me.

I've no idea why she waits until Jan but I have overpaid by nearly £3k this year so as soon as I send her the details in the new tax year I'm going to be asking her to do it immediately for a change.

He means that if you know the system well enough, you can do it yourself.

If you don’t, the accountant should be able to save you enough in taxes to cover their fee and/or save you time that can then be spent on your core business. Basically an good accountant is a business investment.

Georgie - a good accountant will know about all the allowances etc that you can take advantage of, so that you can end up paying considerably less tax than you might otherwise have done.

The savings made can be a lot more than their fees.

Still working on mine too! Don't know why I put it off so successfully.

I submitted mine last week but haven't paid the tax I owe yet.

Which doesn't sound too bad till you find out I work as a tax accountant 😳

There aren't millions of secret allowances though. Basically claiming for mileage, home as office, professional subs etc.

Mine is usually submitted jan 31st but for the last two years I’ve done them really early in June.

This year because I needed it to apply for a mortgage and the year before I needed it for dd’s college fees award.

Same here. I have s small ebay shop and each year say I'll do it by the summer...

I have my spreadsheet almost done with all the figures in, just finishing off inputting stock purchases then I'm ready to submit. Up to November now so nearly done 😀

What are all these secret allowances that accountants know of?
Do tell.

@speakout That would be telling 😉

Done mine, did it in December. All paid up for personal and corporate.

I’m not being smug it’s just cos I’m so paranoid about paying late.

Those late payment adverts used to make me anxious even when I’d paid. Saying that i've not seen any this year

Sorry, I do mine pretty much immediately the financial year ends! I set an evening aside and just get it done as I prefer doing it when everything is fresh in my mind and I have the luxury of time!

Ah ok. I’ve been doing this long enough to know. My industry has lots of special agreements with HMRC about what we can claim for so there’s lots of (free) guidance around for us to use. My tax bill isn’t super high so I’m fairly certain he couldn’t save me an extra £300 in tax.

@ClashCityRocker well done :D I'm nearly there too, will be nearly 400 and I've had enough

Did mine last week. First time I’ve had to pay, but did some bank work and wasn’t taxed on it. Took me ages to set up an account but glad it’s done now.

There really aren't loads of allowances.

There aren't millions of secret allowances though. Basically claiming for mileage, home as office, professional subs etc.

I claim all those through my Ltd company.

Did mine today. But not until id spent about an hour queuing to speak to an HMRC adviser on the phone as I couldn't access the online tax return form despite logging in successfully twice on the awful HMRC website where I apparently have 2 different accounts. Sadly neither of which were working properly, not even the one I used to do my tax return last year.

Had to get a new ID sent to me by email and a separate link to b age my password for the new ID.

But hurray, it's fine for another year!!

Shuffles in to join the guilty

I'm another square who usually does mine & small home business one in May.
I just hate leaving it and my memory is terrible, so I'd rather just get it done.

I do admire all you rock n roll, fly by the seat of your pants types though! Good luck!