self-assessment deadline:help!

[RoseWei]

A very, very part time job is working for (or rather being engaged by) a large company as an instructor (maybe an hour a month, sometimes more - sometimes not nearly as often). No contract - I just invoice the co periodically. Although I don't have a contract, I have ticked a 'tax compliant' box on a form they once sent me.

(I do other work as well,elsewhere, as an employee - PAYE).

Realize that deadline for online tax assessment is imminent. Can do this OK but should I have informed HMRC within 6 months of start of financial year that I would be making an assessment. I wanted to ask them to alter my PAYE code but, dam it, that deadline has passed (end of December).

Any advice about how to deal with this would be gratefully received. I've let time pass - many, many pre-occupations but of course I should have been more on the ball.

When did you start this work?

roundabout August 2011 - it's been most intermittent - didn't make any claim for any payment until some months later
Wonder if the catch up plan campaign is still running?
Thanks

just spotted on another site that an activation code is required if you have not been filing online before. And the deadline for requesting one was 21st January as it has to be sent out in the physical post.

In a call re my tax codes some while ago, I mentioned that I would be needing to make a self-assessment - not sure if that was noted and I didn't ask for an activation code - didn't occur to me.

Help!

Don't panic.

As you have discovered there is no way that you can file online before the normal deadline for Self Assessment returns.

You should have notified HMRC of your additional income by 5 October 2012. Because you did not you are liable for a penalty calculated as a percentage of the Potential Lost Revenue which is the tax that should be paid by 31 January 2012. You can therefore avoid this penalty by paying any tax due within the next 2 days.

If you do this you will not be late paying any tax and so there will be no late payment penalty.

As you have not been asked by HMRC to submit a tax return you are not liable for the automatic £100 penalty which applies to those who have been asked to and do not do so on time.

I am going to assume your untaxed income is less than £2,500pa and your total income for 2011/12 is less than £42,475. Work out your income on the extra work (this includes all work done even if it has not been invoiced) up to 31 March 2012. Deduct any allowable expenses. Take 20% of the the result; this is the amount of tax you need to pay by Thursday.

In order to get there on time you need to pay by Faster Payments from a UK bank account (i.e. internet or telephone banking). Pay the money into this account. Those details say that you should give your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) but it is unlikely that you have one of those (they only tell you what it is when you register for self assesement) so use your NI number instead.

Before you do that, ring the Newly Self Employed Help Line and explain everything, including that you intend to make a payment to Cumbernauld (they may give you a different account or your UTR to make life easier but if they say you don't need to make the payment I'd be inclined to ignore them - much better to have overpaid and need to claim it back than incur a penalty). Make sure they know that your earnings are below £2,500 a year; they may give you a different number to call (which will probably be a lot busier and staffed by less knowledgeable staff so try and get as much out of the Newly SE dept as you can). Write down details of this and any other conversation with HMRC and ask for the name of the person you are speaking to - usually best to say at the end of the conversation "thanks for your help, can I ask who I have been talking to?" rather than demanding their name, age and inside leg measurement at the start.

Finally, note that if you have PAYE income and your other income is less than £2,500pa then this is normally dealt with through your PAYE code, and they may deal with this on the phone however because this is late they may require you to register for Self Assessment. If they do you will have 3 months to submit the return: don't leave it to the last minute

Hope that helps you and anyone else in your situation - note that if your untaxed income is over £2,500 you will have to register for Self Assessment, and if it is over £5,000 it gets more complicated.

Thanks SO much, MrA. This is a huge help.

I rang the newly self-employed helpline this morning and was advised that I had to reg as self-employed, online (but an activiation code wasn't mentioned), over the phone or via a paper form. After 4 - 6 weeks, I'd hear back. Mentioned that indeed my so far untaxed income was under £2,500 (after legit expenses it's about £1,500) but, nevertheless, was told that the only thing I could do first and foremost was to register. No question of making any payments just yet. Asked about possible penalties - seemed to imply that there wouldn't be any if I registered now and waited for the bill.

This doesn't tally with what's on the website - which states deadlines for informing HMRC about take up of work/completing self-assessments etc.

Thanked the guy and said I'd go online -

Is he at all right, I wonder? I'm (just about) able to pay the tax for 2011-12 now but was definiately told that wasn't possible until I register/fill in a form and wait to hear back. By which time the penalties etc could be sky high - even though he didn't think that was the case.

Sorry to bother you - any further thoughts?

"I'm (just about) able to pay the tax for 2011-12 now but was definiately told that wasn't possible until I register/fill in a form and wait to hear back."

They can't stop you paying them money! It may take a little while, and a little effort, to get it to the right place.

"By which time the penalties etc could be sky high - even though he didn't think that was the case."

Penalty for unprompted full disclosure following a deliberate failure to notify with full payment less than 12 months late: 20% of tax due.

Penalty for late payment less than 5 months late: 5% of tax due.

HMRC can apply a Special Reduction to reduce these penalties so the penalty should be between 0% and 25% of the tax due, plus a little interest. With profit of £1,500 you are looking at £300 tax (basic rate) so less than £100 penalty - not exactly sky high, and less than it has cost me in time to set this all out, but I wanted to do that for a help sheet for my client information site anyway

If you do decide to make the payment now to avoid any penalty, you will probably find that once you have registered for Self Assessment the payment doesn't show in your online account. It will take a call to HMRC to get this transferred in from whatever limbo it is sitting in with only your NI number as a reference. For goodness sake get the NI number right (and remember the exact payment date) otherwise it will disappear for ever!