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Tax return blues - would a bit of solidarity help?

I suppose if one is to break out in an astonishing act of honesty and self sabotage maybe best do so in January when one is already quite tearful

Excuse me <paaaaarp>
 
think I've finished, but a question about allowances for goods bought-to-be sold as an expense. The box says:
"Costs of goods bought for re-sale or goods used:" I got told by someone from HMRC at a seminar that you can only include the cost price of things you actually sold, regardless of when they were bought. IE if you bought a load of stuff that didn't sell, that doesn't get included as an expense. and that they don't just want a list of stock you bought. The wording of this bit of the form confused me if that was the case or not.
eta. either way the number is pretty similar in this case.
 
oh shit, when's it due? Luckily my brother does our accounts, but he was last seen muttering something about a discrepancy of a few grand that he couldn't work out.
 
DexterTCN said:
Does anyone ever consider doing it in June or July?
Click to expand...

Fuck that: at least January's shit already as a month - might as well do it then.

Then again, I tend to wake up at 3am every morning for about a month either side of the longest day (as my posting history on here will attest), so I have a lot of free time around then. But am generally borderline-hallucinating from tiredness, so on the other hand....
 
I am now very much enjoying deleting HMRC's increasingly frequent 'Have you done it yet? Well, have you???' email-shots without a second glance.
 
_angel_ said:
think I've finished, but a question about allowances for goods bought-to-be sold as an expense. The box says:
"Costs of goods bought for re-sale or goods used:" I got told by someone from HMRC at a seminar that you can only include the cost price of things you actually sold, regardless of when they were bought. IE if you bought a load of stuff that didn't sell, that doesn't get included as an expense. and that they don't just want a list of stock you bought. The wording of this bit of the form confused me if that was the case or not.
eta. either way the number is pretty similar in this case.
Click to expand...

You take the value of stock that you had at the beginning of the tax year (opening stock), add the cost of what you've bought during the year and deduct the cost of what you have left at the end of the year (closing stock).
 
AnnaKarpik said:
You take the value of stock that you had at the beginning of the tax year (opening stock), add the cost of what you've bought during the year and deduct the cost of what you have left at the end of the year (closing stock).
Click to expand...
Yes, thanks, I just read that somewhere. So you're only adding in the stock that was actually sold in that tax year, which I did.
 
oh god oh god oh god. I have made a pile of bank statements. Now how the fuck do I work out how much of my mortgage payment is interest for the purposes of claiming a chunk of it as a business expense? And I can't remember what calculations I made to justify various expenses last time why do I never write anything down ffs. Why does this have to happen in the worst possible month of the year for it to happen? And now cursing myself for switching to an online accounting package and then not using it correctly and leaving it all in a mess till the final sodding week...
 
iamwithnail said:
It'll say on your mortgage statement how much is capital and how much is interest, by month. :)
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This isn't the case... it just shows a lump amount for the calendar year - so if the interest rate changes during the year it's impossible to work it out... grrrr

Right - mobile phone and broadband. In previous years I have put 50% of this as a business expense. But in reality I cannot do business without them, using them personally makes no difference to the bill - so am I justified in claiming 100%?
 
lazythursday said:
This isn't the case... it just shows a lump amount for the calendar year - so if the interest rate changes during the year it's impossible to work it out... grrrr

Right - mobile phone and broadband. In previous years I have put 50% of this as a business expense. But in reality I cannot do business without them, using them personally makes no difference to the bill - so am I justified in claiming 100%?
Click to expand...

In short, no. You're not allowed to claim for all of a thing just because you only have it/need it because you do business with it, if you also use it for non-business for some of the time.

e2a - it might be a judgement call whether to declare that for something the usage of which couldn't be disaggregated - but with phone/internet there's obviously a data trail of non-business usage. I wouldn't risk it :)
 
It it makes anyone feel better... I got my tax return in at the end of November as I paid too much on account in July and was expecting a rebate. So HMRC sent the cheque out in December but to the wrong address -- some random postcode apparently. So they've now cancelled that cheque and are reissuing it but they can't say when I'll get the cash because they're so busy at the moment. So getting it in early in hope of getting my money back has turned out to be a bit pointless. :mad:
 
billy_bob said:
In short, no. You're not allowed to claim for all of a thing just because you only have it/need it because you do business with it, if you also use it for non-business for some of the time.

e2a - it might be a judgement call whether to declare that for something the usage of which couldn't be disaggregated - but with phone/internet there's obviously a data trail of non-business usage. I wouldn't risk it :)
Click to expand...
Would HMRC be able to get hold of internet usage data? surely not? Anyway I shall not risk it and go for 60/40.

This is a bastard of a year for me because I was pre-paid for loads of work on March 30th, my tax is going to be at least a third more than usual.

I'm assuming that the system still fails to automatically take off your payments on account? I get horribly confused at the payment stage every single year...
 
billy_bob said:
Like paying tax? Like calculating allowable expense differentials? Want to talk to people just like you?

Call Tax-chat - all tax, all chat, all night....
Click to expand...
I just pretended I was 'Children's entertainer' Ken Dodd and explained I'd had difficulties with the forms in the past. It was a slow day at work:oops: :D
 
lazythursday said:
Would HMRC be able to get hold of internet usage data? surely not? Anyway I shall not risk it and go for 60/40.
Click to expand...

No. Not without prosecuting you for evasion, first. In the first instance they might ask you to provide the basis for your breakdown, but the record keeping requirement is supposed to be proportional to size of claim/tax burden, etc.
 
Just plopped mine in a couple of days earlier than usual.
Hooray. I don't have to pay anything because it was a shit year that my payments on account can cover.

. . .
Bad news is that I had a great year this year and I am going to be screwed this time next year if I don't get some work, as I have already spent a large chunk of my earnings. I will have enough to cover my tax and nsc4's but if I don't pull my finger out there is no way I can do next Jans payments on account.
 
I'm kind of worried I'm in that position this year. I can't find my figures re payments on account for 13/14... but I suspect it's going to be at least a grand less than I actually owe. And the system will then automatically want a much bigger payment on account for the current tax year but I think you can just manually change this? I wish you could just do the payments on account by monthly direct debit that get gradually adjusted as you file your tax returns, it would make all this so much less stressful.
 
iamwithnail said:
No. Not without prosecuting you for evasion, first. In the first instance they might ask you to provide the basis for your breakdown, but the record keeping requirement is supposed to be proportional to size of claim/tax burden, etc.
Click to expand...

I agree it would be incredibly unlikely to come back and bite you if you're a sole trader or very small business, and maybe I'm overly law-abiding on this one, but as long as evidence of use is in existence which is different to what you've declared, I wouldn't bother.
 
Oh joy. I have discovered the concept of deferred income. I can perfectly legitimately push a big chunk of income into the following tax year because that was when I actually did the work. Now I am simply nervous rather than scared as I tot up the final expenses. :D
 
lazythursday said:
This isn't the case... it just shows a lump amount for the calendar year - so if the interest rate changes during the year it's impossible to work it out... grrrr

Right - mobile phone and broadband. In previous years I have put 50% of this as a business expense. But in reality I cannot do business without them, using them personally makes no difference to the bill - so am I justified in claiming 100%?
Click to expand...
Your mortgage stuff - are you trying to work out your allowable expenses for working at home? If so,then if you really cant get the interest/capital calculated, you may as well use the simplified method approved by HMRC.
https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/working-from-home
 
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