Tax please help

[madcatladyforever]

I decided to take a years work break as I'd worked for 35 years, was getting divorced, had a mental breakdown and was completely burnt out. I gave in my notice and so was not entitled to benefits and quite honestly I could afford to take a year off and didn't need the hassle of applying for any..
I sorted out a UTR number online in 2018 as I had planned to go for a private health worker interview and they insist you come to interview with a UTR number as you would be working on a self employed basis.
Anyway the long and short of it was I decided I wasn't well enough to work and didn't get the job anyway and also had to have a major operation so decided just to have the year off.
Under a year later I went back to the NHS full time as I am better now having never done any private work but I have just received a letter informing me that my deadline for self assessment is Jan 31st this year.
I'm not sure what to do or if there is anything I need to fill out and am having a bit of a panic.
Are there any tax experts out there who could help?

The easiest thing to do is phone them. You have to wait on hold for a long time, but I have always found the tax office very helpful.
Have your NI number ready, plus any other paperwork such as your last P60, details of any bank interest or wages.
The tax forms look really complicated at first- but most of it won't apply and they will talk you through it.
Don't leave it- don't risk a fine!

Are you saying you've never actually earned anything through self-employment, then?

I would definitely call HMRC - I've found them to be really helpful.

No nothing, I'd planned to but was so utterly stressed out I just decided to take a complete career break as I had an op for cancer and couldn't cope with it.
If I never did any work at all I shouldn't have to fill in a tax return surely?
I went from NHS job to NHS job with a year off inbetween.

It might take you a while to get through so just in case I would register to do online return now (I think they might still need to send a password or something by snail mail) then fill in an online return, which will be easy if you didn't earn anything. The period you need a return for is 6th April 2018 to 5th April 2019. If your paid employment touches in that period you'll just need to put the gross pay and tax paid from your payslip. They may already have that info prepopulated anyway.

The start of the return is just a bunch of questions: did you receive any income from employment? Did you receive income from self employment etc and the numbers bit will be tailored based on your answers - ie you won't have to put in any self employed figures if you said no.

It is fairly straightforward, good luck (hopefully you'll get through to someone helpful and can avoid all this anyway 😉)

Thank you I'll give them a call and try and sort it out. I thought you had to have a UTR number before you started self employed work but it turns out you don't. You only need one if you have actually worked and I think that is what has triggered the letter.

You need to call them otherwise you will get a penalty for non submission