HMRC have registered DH for self assessment

[Prometheus]

DH received a letter today from HMRC saying that they have registered him for self assessment. He is PAYE and earns £80,000 per year with an annual bonus. Does anyone know what we should do next please? I'm guessing this means they want him to complete a self assessment for the tax year ending April 2015? He pays tax PAYE but has bank accounts so perhaps need to pay extra tax on the small amount of interest he earns from his current accounts? We have only lived in the UK for 2 years so not really sure about the tax system works. Thanks for any advice.

Pay an accountant. I am in a similar situation to your DH and the self assessment form is so bloody confusing it's ridiculous.

Self assessment is simple. The hMRC website is an unexpected triumph of user friendliness in a sea of civil service incompetence. The letter should tell you how to register to use the online system. You do need to do that early so you can be posted yur password, but after that, if you can use mums net and a calculator you can do it easily. M

You can do mine flessan! I find if you have any income other than what is shown on your p60 it's basically impossible to figure out what to do with it. I always feel like Bernard in black books when I do my tax

I'm.guessing his bonus,takes him.over £100k in which case he'll start losing his personal allowance, so even though hes PAYE you'll may have additional tax to pay.
It's fairly simple to do online.

It's easy! I have P60 income as well as investment income and I find the site very intuitive.

I agree that you need to register nice and early so there's time for the passwords to arrive.

If all he has is employment income and bank interest it will be easy to fill in. Once he has log in details go on and look at the site. You can mess around on it but not submit.

Yes : register for online services. They will give you a 16 digit number and password. Then they send an activation code. Input this where shown on the website once you receive it and activate self assessment as your online service.

After this when you fill in the return it asks you to answer questions about your income types. Depending on the answers you give it brings up different pages to fill in. It's generally obvious what to put where. There are a few questions near the end which can throw some people but if you have all your paye coding notices for the year and years either side you will see what to put. You have plenty of time but don't leave it til January!

If you register and go through methodically it calculates for you. You can then print and check the calculations.

The letter should specify the tax year it's referencing.

You might only have to do it once - often if your tax affairs are simple, they then inform you not to bother in future years if nothing changes.

Things to have to hand - tax certificates from bank accounts, p60, p11D, child benefit info if you start / stop in a tax year (even if it is paid to your partner).

Get an accountant only if your tax affairs are very complex. The site is simple, if you can earn £80k then you can complete it in sure. Any probs just use the on line help.

Thank you. The letter doesn't say what tax year it refers to. Think it will be tricky to amass the information. He doesn't get tax statements from his bank accounts so he'll have to chase that. He also had some shares that he inherited (and are now sold) in about 8 companies that generated about £40 in divendends per year each. I'm guessing we'll need to submit that info. Thanks for all the advice. I'll get him to register online straight away.

If he has online banking you can easily download the tax statement. P60 will give everything else. Check though as it may well be for year ending 30 April 2016.

The way things are moving a lot more people will have to do self assessment - especially higher rate taxpayers.

And don't forget to include any gift aid payments he may have made

It is easy if your affairs are relatively simple. You just fill in income, taxable benefits work should give him a p11d form), gift aid donations, bank interest, dividend receipts.

I'd love to know how they calculate it though. I am on paye with very small amounts in the other boxes. Some years they pay me and others they send me a big bill. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

There is a page that shows you the calculation

It's always important to double check the paye on your p60 - you should never assume they have got it right

it really isn't that hard, but start it moving now. As noted the self-assessment system and software ACTUALLY WORKS. Amazing.

an accountant won't gather the info for you, you need to do that.

It might be because of child benefit, if either earn over a certain amount it is claimed back this way.

Anyhoo, whyever it is, like others say, do it online, it's easy peasy. He will need details of interest from bank accounts and dividends from shares, other than that P60 and P11D and bob's your uncle. Honestly online it's all in sections and they ask you what you have (do you have interest from bank accounts? do you have property that you get income from?) etc and then only asks for info for the bits that are relevant for you.

if you sign up you can look and see what he will need, before he starts getting it all together, then you will know what you need.

The self assessment online site is very user friendly. I agree not to pay an accountant unless it's very complex. I have two jobs and a BTL and it takes about 30min now.

The hardest part is getting all of the P60 and statements together, you'll do that anyway so no need to pay an accountant to do the easy but! There's plenty of help online if you google the actual question they're asking.

It takes a very long time to set up your account so don't wait until the new year to do it or you'll kiss the deadline. Once you've set up your account it will probably tell you which year they are after.

Great, thanks for all the advice. No child benefit, when we moved here the system had just changed and I opted not to receive it so we wouldn't have to self assessment

It is simple if your tax affairs are simple. But getting an accountant to do it for you is cheap relative to being overtaxed...unless your DH knows all his tax deductables etc he may pay more than he needs to.

If he is an employee on paye and nothing else then he's unlikely to have anything deductible.

It really is very simple!!

It isn't that tricky. He can submit a paper form by end October 2015 or online by end Jan 2016 for tax year ending April 2015. They may request one for 2013-14 if they think he underpaid via PAYE then too but perhaps he wasn't earning in UK for that full period. As someone stated it may be that one return proves he is paying in line and they say not to do another. However with a basic of 80k, bonus, investments and perhaps benefits in kind he could easily have gone over the next trigger point. You should have received tax statements from any bank accounts, ask in the branch if not.

For gods sake make sure you receive the submission code that confirms that they have received your tax return form. Dh has done his three times now and they still keep writing to him to say he hasn't done it and is amassing hundreds of pounds of fines. When he did manage to speak to a real human being they could see when he first logged on and gave him the code manually but didn't back date it to the original form so the system thinks he filled it out late. It is a nightmare.

His affairs sound simple. Don't waste your hard earned £ on an accountant. Do it well before the 31/1/16 deadline so that you're not under pressure. Remember to include additional payments made to pensions (there's tax relief available) and charity donations (likewise).

Love the idea of kissing a deadline!