What is self assessment tax return?
A self-assessment tax return (a personal tax return or a sa1) is a HMRC tax form for individuals to declare their income, expenses, and allowances for that financial year. HM Revenue and Customs use it to tax sources of income that a person earns but which are not taken through regular channels such as PAYE.
Who needs to do a self assessment tax return?
The yearly self-assessment tax returns are for a number of people, mostly those who are self-employed, but also people in full-time and part-time workers who have other sources of income, and people who have a foreign income. Here is a list of examples of those who need to submit a sa1 form:
• Self-employed workers
• Workers who are members of a partnership
• A director/directors of limited companies
• People are UK residents & have a foreign income
• People who live abroad & have a UK income
• High rate taxpayers who earn over £100,000 per year
• Trustees of charitable trusts
• High dividend income
• If your annual investment exceeds £10,000
• Individuals that have untaxed income
• Capital Gains Tax (including the purchase and sale of stocks, shares, land, or property)
This is not a complete list, and self-assessments tax returns are legally required by law. If you believe that you should be submitting a personal tax return but are unsure, then please get in touch with our team at Swift Refunds. People who live and work in the UK will have their tax deducted through their employer/PAYE and do not need to complete an individual tax return.
What expenses can you claim on a self assessment tax form?
When filling in your tax returns to HRMC, you are able to claim tax back on expenses and costs.
• Wage & Salary
• Rental costs (office)
• Utilities (including rates, gas & electric costs)
• Telephone & mobile phone bills.
• Administrative (stationary)
• Vehicles (work vans)
• Tools, equipment, and materials
• Advertising costs
• Legal/accounting fees
• Home office allowance
When is self assessment tax due?
Self-assessment tax returns are issued on April 6th for the new UK financial year, and the deadline is January 31st for online submissions. The deadline for a paper tax return is earlier, 31st October. The benefits of doing an online tax return are you get a receipt of your submission instantly and it also helps cut down on waste paper. The deadline for your paper tax return applies when HMRC receives your tax return, not the day you posted it. If you post it and it arrives after the deadline, you will receive a late filing penalty.
What are self assessment late filing penalties?
If you file your online tax return later than the deadline date of January 31st, penalty charges start from February 1st. If you file your paper tax later than the deadline of October 31st, penalty charges start from November 1st.
• 1 A day late: £100
• Under 3 months late: £100
• Over 3 months late: £10 per day
Late payment surcharges are added to the late filing penalties. It is vital that you file and settle your tax on time.
• 30 days late: 5%
• 6 months late: 5%
• 12 months late: 5%
How to do self-assessment?
You can do a self-assessment tax return online, pick up a form for your local post office or you can download, print, and post a form to HMRC.
What Can I Claim Tax Back On?
You can claim tax back on most work-related expenses. Below is a list of items that you can request a tax rebate on:
• Vehicles for work use
• Fuel/Mileage costs
• Travel expenses
• Overnight expenses (food in certain circumstances)
• Rail Tickets (single & season tickets)
• Uniforms, work clothing and tools
• Cleaning costs for uniforms
• Professional fees, subscriptions & unions fees
This list is an example of what you could claim back; there may be expenses & items specific to the job role that you could claim back.
What are the Deadlines?
- Current legislation in the UK says you can go back up to four Tax years when claiming a Tax rebate. This means at the current moment in time you can make a claim for the following periods:
- Year ended 5th April 2021
- Year ended 5th April 2022
- Year ended 5th April 2023
- Year ended 5th April 2024
Effectively this means you can claim Tax relief from 6th April 2020.
Over such a long period of time wage slips and p60s can be lost or misplaced. This isn’t a problem as you have lots of ways to obtain this information.
- Contact your current/previous employers as they are legally obliged to keep your records going back 6 years and because of GDPR if your request that information they have to provide it to you.
- You could log into your government gateway which is easy to set up if you have never done this.
- Contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300 and request that they post out to you a tax history letter which usually arrives in 10 working days from when you request it from them and this tax history letter will go back 4 years.
Am I Due Any Tax Back?
Most workers, whether employed or self-employed may be due a tax rebate for work-related items, expenses or because they have paid too much tax. HMRC do not know everyone’s individual circumstances, and it is up to the taxpayer to contact HMRC to see if they are entitled to any tax relief.
Other reasons for a tax refund may include pension payments, redundancy payments, interest from a savings account, PPI, or UK income if you are living aboard.
All claims for tax refunds and rebates are reviewed on a case by case basis. Use our tax claim form and answer a few simple questions to see if you could be entitled to make a claim.
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