Self employment

[pringle6]

Needing help , as I've been googling it and have read 2/3 different answers.
So my husband went self employed on 16th April 2024 , when does he need to fill in a tax return by and for what year, as on his tax account when you go on file a self assessment it only gives you up to 2023/2024 tax year?
Also I started self employment on 1st December 2024 so self question for me aswell?

The reason I'm so confused is everywhere says file a tax return by 31st January and been told we have to pay it by October 2025 . But then I've read somewhere that you can file a tax return by October 2025 and pay by January 31st 2026 as he started self employment afyer 6th April 2024?? 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Are you in England? The dates for paying self assessment tax are 31Jan and 31Jul, you've been misinformed about October I think

If you haven't already ready you need to register as self employed and complete the first tax return for the 24/25 tax year by Jan 26

Yeah we are uk. Yes I think we was.
So we don't have to do one until after April next year? For the year April 2024 to April 2025?
Whats the earliest we can file a tax return so we can pay off the tax? Is the deadline for paying ur tax bill still 31st Jan in this case 2026?

Short answer: You both need to do your tax return next year. This round everyone is talking about is for people's earnings in 2023-24. Your first self employed year will be 2024-25.

You also get to earn up to £1000 before you have to declare it.

The October / January stuff is that you can file it from October. But the hard deadline is end of January.

You can do it online and mine only takes me about an hour but I do keep a good spreadsheet of incomings / outgoings.

I'm assuming you're just talking about the adverts, and HMRC haven't personally written to you asking you to file a return for 2023/24?

Also remember that by 31/1/26 you will need to pay the tax due for 24/25 (current tax year) plus half of the tax for 25/26 tax year up front which is usually estimated as half the tax from 24/25

So say your tax bill is £10000 for 24/25 then in Jan 26 you need to pay £10000 plus £5000 for 25/26 and then in July 26 you pay another £5000.

So Jan 26 will be a big bill.

When did it change that you had to wait until October to file your tax return? Have they stopped accepting them before that?

No, you can file as early as 6 April if you're organised. In recent memory, there's been no restrictions re early filing, though sometimes the HMRC system may not have been ready on 6 April but even then, it was updated and ready to accept filing within a few days or maybe a few weeks. Certainly never as late of October, Nothing detrimental at all about filing early - you can still pay when it's due at the end of January.

Thank you, I thought I wouldn't have missed that but when posters state something as a fact it makes me wonder if I'm wrong

31st October used to be the deadline if you were filing a paper copy of your tax return. But I don’t think they accept paper ones anymore.

you can file anytime between 6th April 2025 & 31st Jan 2026. But register now and get your government gateway thing set up.

Thanks everyone for the information. All registered already and have the utr numbers.
So just to confirm I can file the tax return in April 2025 after the 6th, and then we will know what tax we need to pay by end of January.
So If I do a years tax return every year from April to April and then pay by 31st January?