Tax return - can I stop doing them?

[Justcallmecaptainobvious]

Can’t quite find the answer to this!

I’ve done tax self assessments for the last couple of years, purely due to the child benefit high income charge (one job, PAYE, no other income/investments/etc). I stopped receiving child benefit in Nov 2019. So for 20/21, can I just not do a self assessment? Do I need to “unregister” somehow?

Yes you do otherwise they will give you a fixed penalty for non submission

If you are purely PAYE I think you can tell HMRC and agree that you don't need to do them.

Ask them. I've always found them really helpful when I've needed to talk to a human. If you can't get through, and I imagine they're going to be pretty busy with the deadline being the 31st, do your return anyway just to cover your back.

I got a message from them after my last self assessment form to say I no longer need to fill them in. So I'd check your gateway account for messages, and if nothing there, ring them.
Dont just stop doing them - you will get fined.

Thanks all, very helpful! Have done one for this year, will give them a ring at some point after the deadline as I expect they’ll be a bit busy now!

@Justcallmecaptainobvious

Thanks all, very helpful! Have done one for this year, will give them a ring at some point after the deadline as I expect they’ll be a bit busy now!

Understatement. It's impossible to get through to them!

Haha @userxx Yes, give up an hour of your life. Charge the phone. Prepare snacks!

I called them at 8am friday morning. Was talking to someone within about 10 minutes and they were super helpful.

Wow! The gods were smiling @DeltaAlphaDelta Buy that lottery ticket

@BrassicaBabe

Haha *@userxx* Yes, give up an hour of your life. Charge the phone. Prepare snacks!

Snacks? More like a 3 course meal and I'd still be listening to that Godforsaken music!!

I didn’t work for 10 years when kids were small and tried asking them to stop sending me tax returns as I had no income bar some interest on joint bank account which was minimal but they told me that once you were in the system that was it

@Katrinawaves

I didn’t work for 10 years when kids were small and tried asking them to stop sending me tax returns as I had no income bar some interest on joint bank account which was minimal but they told me that once you were in the system that was it

You can asked to be removed from the SA system, I've done it for a number of clients before. They'll ask you a few questions and that's it.

@Katrinawaves

I didn’t work for 10 years when kids were small and tried asking them to stop sending me tax returns as I had no income bar some interest on joint bank account which was minimal but they told me that once you were in the system that was it

Asking to come out of SA was one of the reasons I called. I have a part time job that I SA for, alongside my paye day job. They told me that all i needed to do was do a nil return, and they would automatically remove me, but if I wanted to keep it rolling for next year, I had to comment to that effect in the additional info section.

@BrassicaBabe

Wow! The gods were smiling *@DeltaAlphaDelta* Buy that lottery ticket

Lol perhaps I should have!

They also review regularly and remove you from the system.

I don't need to do an SA, they will sort it through my coding - however the figures they use are incorrect and I'd rather just do my return. So I submit it, they process and tell me I don't need to do one next year. Repeat..

I've done them for DP for the last few years to claim work expenses. I submitted his 19/20 return on 12 Jan and this week he's received both the cheque refund and a letter telling him 19/20 is the last year he needs to do a return for (he had one last year as well). I'll be submitting a 20/21 return as they just reject the short form expenses claim.

One additional bit of advice...a benefit of submitting a tax return means HMRC will struggle to pursue you for any underpaid tax as long as you declared correctly.

I had a 6 year underpayment which came about from HMRC miscalculating. They installed a new computer system which corrected it but they stated it was still payable. However, if I had submitted self assessment they admitted they couldn't have reclaimed it. I was furious as they told me to stop submitted the wretched things. Both me and DH submit anyway now irrespective due to this