Accountant - free advice here!

[MamaDalton27]

I’m a fully qualified accountant working at one of the big 4. Got a bit of a quiet afternoon and I know accountants aren’t cheap so thought I’d see if anyone had any questions or wanted any advice?! Ask away and I’ll do my best to help!

Yes so you need to register for self assessment and you have until 5th October after the year you’re required to fill a tax return so for you that would be October 2026. And yes you can submit from next April deadline is 31st Jan 2027.

Do you know what expenses you can claim?

Do you have any other employment?

Personally I’m not sure if I would declare it at all. I know that’s against the rules though

Thanks. I do have taxable income (contributions based ESA), which is about £281.10 a fortnight which I think I will need to declare?

That’s not taxed through self assessment though it’s done via PAYE

I didn't know that, thanks.

Start with ACCA Foundation papers which will give you a level 4 qualification if you pass all 3. ACCA is the hybrid qualification which spans working in practice (accounts, audit, tax etc for clients) and working in industry or the public sector (management accounting which is all about planning, control and strategic accounting).

You can study on demand, live online or on a classroom. For a complete novice I would recommend LOL (live lessons in a virtual tutor to help) or in a classroom if you're in a big city. The best training providers are Kaplan, First Intuition or BPP. Don't faff around with a further ed college & evening classes.

Thanks this is a much better explanation haha it’s been years since I did it! I used BPP

Big 4, next tier, own practice & exam tutor!

Have a look at the low incomes tax reform group website. Tonnes of brilliant free tax advice there. https://www.litrg.org.uk/

I'm in a similar position to you, and I update my estimated income on the HMRC app to be slightly over what I think I will earn. The last few years I've paid slightly more tax and had a refund, but that's much better than owing them £5k in tax!!

You can claim the trading allowance which is £1k, it’s to make it easier to do a self assessment tax return when you have low income/expenses. Its pretty easy to do through the government gateway.

If you are self-employed and it is CPD then you can claim it eg an ACA accountant going on a tax update. If you are self-employed and it is a new skill of course it is considered an enduring capital asset and cannot be claimed eg an accountant obtaining a tax qualification.
if you are running a limited company and pay for employee training, so long as it is wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the trade it is allowable.
if you are an employee paying for your own training, unless it is a requirement of your employer and everyone at your level doing your job goes it is not allowable - a good example of this is doctors, they often are required to do some course at their own expense and it is allowable.

You can fill in a form through your government gateway to notify HMRC of your bonus and they will amend your tax code.

I feel like this might be a simple question to you but I just can't work it out 😳.

I have some company shares and I want to sell some off. I know that I need to pay Capital Gains Tax on the increase in value from when the shares vested. When I sell how do I work out which shares I should be calculating this on because you don't which ones you are selling? I pot of shares I have vested over various times so they all have different amounts. I want to keep the tax liability more liquid than the rest which I am intending to invest to cover my taxes when they are due.

TIA!

I will have 100k inheritance in the next few months. What would you suggest I do?

I can pay my mortgage for 60k but not sure if that's a good idea as it's small anyway.

My DH wants to buy a flat to let out. I'm not sure what the best use of the money is at all.

Any advice much appreciated!

Thank you!

If you earn 100k (after pension and qualifying gift aid donations) you get a full personal allowance of £12,570 but over that and it’s reduced by £1 for every £2 to the point where you’ve got no personal allowance once you earn £125,140. If you are not in a position to increase your pension contributions to say, 30k per year then you could ask HMRC to adjust your tax code. They probably have it as 1257l which is just your basic code that tells your employer to give you full personal allowance but your one needs to say no personal allowance so then it would spread your tax burden over the year.

Self assessment tax info

https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns

Inheritance tax...my DW is not a British citizen, and not resident in the UK. Does she still get the spouse exemption if I leave my estate to her?

I just started a new thread with my query, but then spotted this one so I thought I'd ask here as well if that's ok.

I filed my self assessment for 2024-25 yesterday.

When I got to the section about do you have any foreign income, I clicked on the "no" button and a message popped up, which has never happened before, saying "are you sure, we know you have an overseas bank account".

This is true - it is to pay utility and other bills for my holiday apartment. It is a Euro current account, does not earn any interest, and I do not rent the apartment out. The account is funded by transfers from my UK bank account. I can only assume that EU banks must have started sending details to HMRC of their UK customers.

My question is: do I need to tell HMRC that I own an overseas property, and do I need to provide bank statements to prove I have no foreign income? TIA

Depends on the domiciled status! Changes have come in from April this year - so it’s based on if domiciled in UK and historical tax resident status so it’s not possible to say without knowing more of your personal circumstances. But if not then the cap is the standard 325k

Short answer is no you don’t have to tell them anything unless they specifically ask.

From my understanding there’s some reporting requirements between EU/UK bank accounts so your EU bank has probably reported you have one which has prompted the message you’ve had.

You only have to report it if you’re earning income or interest.

You could provide some supporting info as part of your self assessment if it gives you peace of mind or give them a call but don’t worry as long as you’re not earning

So it totally depends on your personal situation and priorities! If it was me I would pay off my mortgage but we all have different goals. This is a question more suited to a financial advisor than an accountant tbh. The possibilities are vast and all dependant on you and your husband and circumstances and preferences and your attitude to risk. I’d set up a call with a financial advisor

Hey,

so there are specific rules about shares and when you sell them and how this is calculated as like you say you wont necessarily know which you’re selling.

HMRC will apply share identification rules to calculate the gain. I can give you details on these if you need them?

but with you saying company shares are you sure you’re not exempt or at least due some tax relief? If they’re employee shares you may have already had some tax via employment income when they vested. So you’d only pay more tax if they’ve increased in value since then.

Hi, what a lovely thing to do.

If you have a moment at any time, I’d love to know if I’m correct about my GIA. I’ve never had one before, and it’s a temporary issue due to a gift (normally my ISA wouldn’t be full), am I correct that if I move the money in April for the new tax year (been put in only this month and more to follow each month) I will not need to worry about ERI calculations as I won’t hold the fund on the last day of the reporting period in July i think it was. I knew about CGT and dividends, both of which should be under the allowance and I should be capable of calculating despite dripping it in, but I feel out of my depth with ERI and dont want to be doing a tax return. Thank you in advance for any advice.

This is for Mama Dalton please. I'm an OAP who has been asked to pay £420 after an online tax accountant did my return. But he says I cannot deduct the £300 I made in charitable donations as an expense! I thought I could! please can you explain? That s