Self Assesment

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nosherduke996

Well-Known Member
Location
Newdigate,surrey
Hi all, how hard is it filling in the self assessment tax return. I have been self employed as a sole trade now for fifteen years, and am getting fed up with my accountant tasking the piss. How hard is it to do it yourself ?
 

Oldlegs

Frogs are people too.
Location
Norwich
Filling in the form is easy enough.

Preparing a set of accounts from which to fill in the form is a lot harder - I'm guessing that's mainly what you pay the accountant to do.
 

accountantpete

Brexiteer
As Oldlegs says - the problem with doing the accounts yourself is that you can make a mistake as to what expenditure is an allowable deduction against income etc. Do the same for 7 or 8 years and HMRC finding out can result in a big bill.

I can sympathise - I have just finished a set of accounts which took me an hour to complete as the guy has just one client. His last accountant charged him £350 a year!
 

colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
I do my self assessment forms on-line and providing you have all the information to hand (which you should have anyway) I find it easy. The notes that accompany the various section are pretty comprehensive so if you aren't sure about what to enter they usually have an answer.

Mind you my tax affairs are really simple anyway. If I were to be buying stocks and shares all through the year and receiving income from different sources then I would use an accountant for sure.

Just to add that the self assessment website is well thought out and takes a simple step by step approach. Considering how often the Govt. cock up IT projects this just works.
 
I hate these!

Every year I fill it in and return it because I mad a rather large claim when I paid some student fees for a self funded course. I only have one income and no pension

I then get a letter saying that I owe them lots of tax, I then question t his and they send me a second letter with greatly reduced amount or in 3 of the last 5 years they have on re-assessment owed me money.

Then I get the D0 tax code (40% on all earnings with no allowances

I then phone and query this when they state that I have a second job in Cardiff and that is why I he been taxed thus

I then point out that apart from cycling through once I have never been to Cardiff.

They then admit this is also a mistake and revert me to a normal tax code

The first year it was probably a mistake, but to repeat the same mistakes for three consecutive years is riddiculous.
 
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