Firstly a very Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had a good break and your New Year’s diet plans are fairing better than mine.
For me and the VW staff, Christmas is a distant memory the moment we return to the office in January as we undertake one of the busiest periods of the year; making sure everyone gets in their Tax Return before the deadline on 31stJanuary 2018.
I was shocked yesterday to read that 870,000 self-employed individuals missed last year’s deadline. At £100 fine per person, it generated £87million for Mr Tax Man overnight. And despite all the reminders, no doubt he will have a similar payday this year.
This week alone, I have overheard a number of calls from Allie chasing clients who are yet to provide the correct info for us to complete their Self Assessment Tax Return, so this post is aimed, predominately at the remaining clients on our system that still have outstanding returns, and who I feel don’t believe they need to do anything… I am a betting man, and I would put money on it that most of them do!
- The Tax Return we are chasing is for work completed between 6th April 2016 to 5th April 2017. Feels like a lifetime ago I know but please check your records to see if you did work self-employed during this period. If you did, you must complete a Self Assessment Tax Return.
- If you have not told HMRC you are no longer self-employed, you will be fined and my magic wand doesn’t work on this fine, regardless if you were self-employed or not. So come the 1st February, you will be one of the many adding to that whopping payday for HMRC.
- If you work in construction and worked even just 1 day self-employed in the period above, you will be owed a tax rebate. Yes, that’s right, the Tax Man will owe you money! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check, don’t give it to the tax man, spend it on an extra few pints…..
- If you are ignoring the looming deadline as your paperwork is a mess or your dog has eaten it, then bank statements for the period above will suffice. I will walk you up to the bank personally to make sure they print the right ones off. Even if you don’t have this, we can also work off fag packet calculations and I am very used to doing so.
- If you don’t have the money for your tax bill, don’t worry, cost of paying this bill a little later is far less than the fine for not submitting the return to start with. If we need to put forward payment plans, no problem, leave it with me and let me do the talking to HMRC!
- If you are a customer of VW Taxation and haven’t received a letter from us or a few calls chasing you, then we don’t have your contact details. Call us immediately on 02392 324587 or email Allie on allisonr@vwtaxation.com or send us a message on Facebook.
- If you aren’t a customer of VW Taxation, but one of the above applies to you, get in touch with us today and let us help! It’s not late!
Right, better get back to work……… rather a bit to do!
Ta,
Gary the Tax
