Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Just fill in the form with the figures from your P60/P11D (if applicable) & any of those tax forms you get annually from your bank if you've got any savings...


Eventually, EVERYONE will be filling them in. I think its up to about 10 million peeps atm.

Underlying reason is that YOU are responsible for your tax being correct, so square it with taxman & np.


Take the 5 or 10 mins to fill it in, post it & forget about it.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Oh & I've been filling 'em in for the last 3 or 4 years & I'm PAYE. Wife is going to have to start soon as well & she is too.

scoob_babe

If you earn over £33k per year (which takes the £4k personal allowance into consideration), you have to fill out the form, even if you pay through PAYE. At least you were sent a form, I had to phone up and ask about it as it was pointed out I should be doing the tax return. Do it online now - phone your banks and ask how much interest has been on your accounts and get it submitted before Tuesday. I've never done the calcs myself as I managed to get my form done quickly. Phone them up on Monday (after you have done form) and ask them why it took so long for them to send you it as you've only had 2 days in whcih to do it before the tax calculation deadline of the 30 Sept.
You need your P60 as well as P11D (healthcare benefits details) and the gross amount of any pension contributions you may have made from 5th April 2002-5th april 2003

Scooby96

Dont give it to W69 - she clearly doesnt know how to sign an official form!

scoob_babe

you might get away with not having to do the calculations if you call them. I only did 2001-2002 in April this year and didn't have to do them or pay a fine. Just don't go bananas with them on the phone though

Chip

I earn over 33k but havent had a form but guy I work with has. He earns the same as well.

Chip.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I presume the form you have is a complete Tax Return, yes?

I believe you always have 2 months from receipt of the Return to complete it, even if it arrives late. Normally they arrive in April with the usual September deadline, but you get some extra time if you're sent the form late.

If you just have a regular job, you only need to fill in a couple of figures from your P60 onto the employment pages, plus the interest you've earned on your savings. There's also the opportunity to claim relief for pension contributions you may have made - this is well worthwhile doing especially if you're a higher rate taxpayer.

Personally I don't trust filling in the form electronically - the Government and computers don't go together at all well, whereas the paper system is pretty well tried and tested.

A.

ProperCharlie

AFAIK this step is optional

scoob_babe

well, yes it is a bit Charlie

Chip - its up to you to tell the Inland Revenue, no matter how unfair you see it. You may be just under the threshold with the personal allwoance - TBH I can't remember exactly how much it is, just around the £4k mark. If you are investigated, they really do hound you!

Scooby96

Yep - dont ever lie, they will come after you like a pack of dogs. I still dont get why after doing a tax return for over 10 years they're still interested in me - I fill the same boxes out every year with a slightly increased figure.

Dreading it when I start buying / selling repo houses - might do it on the quiet

scoob_babe

accountant time S96

ProperCharlie

it's not worth lying but it's easy to *forget* about the odd thing, benefit in kind or whatever. if they ever twig you just plead ignorance and have to shell out the back tax. not that i would ever do this of course.

Scooby96

Ignorance is no defence and all that - be honest, I know its hard but then I guess Lester Pigotts cellmate was too

ProperCharlie

well he was taking the p*ss a bit, wasn't he? my experience is that if you are doing it 95% right they ain't gonna be too worried. i mean, banks deduct tax at basic rate in any case, so you are only looking at the difference between that and the higher rate, and on the sums of money most people have sitting in accounts it's not going to add up to a lot.

Edited to add that I'm just going off to put a few more things on my tax form that I've just *remembered* and I recommend that you all do too

[Edited by ProperCharlie - 9/27/2003 12:55:30 PM]

hades

If you've only just received it, you shouldn't be on the end of September deadline, the accompanying letter should say so too. The first one I ever received didn't arrive until November, and I had until January (if I wanted them to calculate the tax) or February (if I wanted to work it out myself).

For someone on a straight PAYE (I'm in that boat too), it's very straightforward: in my case, the company gives you a P11D and a P something else, and you copy the numbers across, fill in interest from old bank statements, and there you go. Only gets harder if you're a landlord, major investments, etc.

scoob_babe

straight-forward is what I thought - until the company I used to work for went into Administration, apparently changed the name etc so my P60 only had 3 months worth of values on it. I copied over the areas marked with a star and thought nothing of it - as far as I knew I had only worked for one company! Okay, the values were low but I have no idea how the tax is calculated! Luckily the IR were OK about it as I have the P60 to prove where I unknowingly made the error and that I wasn't trying to cheat them.

douglasb

The 30th September is just the deadline if you want the IR to calculate your tax for you. You have until Jan 31st to complete and return the form together with your payment. If you leave it till after 30/9 (probably not an option if you've only just received a tax return) you have to calculate what you owe (or what they owe you).

Leave it until after Jan 31st and penalty payments start to kick in.

If you do the return online, the website does the calculation for you. If it turns out that they owe you money, the rebate is much quicker with an online return. I submitted mine on a Monday and had the rebate in my bank on the Friday.

Doug

Chip

So I have to tell them that I earned over £33k then pay them more than theyve already had from me. Makes you think whether that phone call is really worth making doesnt it.

Do they look into previous years as well as I earned more the previous 3 years than last year.

Isuppose they take income from divis into account as well do they.

Chip.

douglasb

Yes

Depends on your circumstances. If you have anything that you can set against income (for example, business mileage allowance if you get less than 45p per mile for the first 10K miles and 25p on the rest of the mileage) they could end up owing you.

It does indeed.

Don't know if they will, but they can go back up to seven years and claim any unpaid tax. They will have your P60 details of income and tax paid, so if they decide to investigate, they can get a pretty quick idea if there is lkely to be anything owing.

Yep. And interest from banks/building societies.

Doug

Jonto

i hate the Inland REvenue

Chip

So will I by the look of things.

To be honest I have never even thought about my tax as I always assumed (wrongly apparently) that as my tax is taken straight out of my pay PAYE then it was sorted by my company.

Chip

Bas

Not disputing anything that Doug says above as it is all correct by the letter of the law but, dealing with this sort of thing on a day to day basis as I do, the reality is different

Yes, if you are a higher rate taxpayer and have interest and/or dividend income, you are *supposed* to tell the Revenue as you will have some additional liability.

But, if we're talking about just a few pounds of interest and the odd dividend, I would let the Revenue come to you. They're not going to apply any penalties for non declaration if all we're talking about is a few pounds of additional liability. There will be interest on tax paid late but we're talking about pennies.

As Doug says though, you may be able to claim reliefs which could mean that they will owe you. In addition to the mileage allowance for using your own car for business purposes, if you make personal pension contributions, you will be entitled to an extra 18% relief on the amount paid.

Bas

scoob_babe

Chip - you might find that they owe YOU money rather than the other way around. On my first return, I got back over £100 - and that included one bank account which didn't have interest taxed on it (no it wasn't an isa, have no idea how that happened!)

hades

re: the paying them more than they'velaready had from you. In theory, under PAYE if you've gone into 40% band, then you'll have already paid them the "extra". Most people on PAYE that I know of have ended up with either very little extra to pay (dividends / interest), or a little money back. For the last few years, I've ended up with them owing me about £3 each time!

Another thing worth noting - you can claim tax relief on subscription fees to a professional institution (Institute of Electrical Engineers, Institute of bankers or whatever), as that is considered an expense related to your job.

IIRC, even 31st January only applies for fines if your form is sent out by 31st October - believe you have two months to return if you want them to calculate tax for you, or three months if you want to work it out yourself.