Tax return blues - would a bit of solidarity help?

[wemakeyousoundb]

must confess I did mine months ago for the first time ever, must remember to pay that bill in january now.

found HMRC very helpful on the phone when I spoke to them before, just avoid the first 7 days of the month due to VAT anxiety queues on the line.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Left it a bit late this year.
Had a look at it yesterday.

Something I don't remember filling in before. It asks if I have been paid interest on bank accounts etc. Well yes I have, but it's not going to be more that I need to declare (it's nowhere near £1000 or even £500). I don't remember this box but it must have been there before. If I tick it, it doesn't ask how much so how would they know if it does or doesn't count? Am I just supposed to tick yes, and then simply not count the interest when I type in my total earned income?

 

[teuchter]

You always have to declare bank interest don't you? Or at least for the past few years; I think at some point it changed so that you are paid interest without any tax taken off whereas previously it was.

 

[Leafster]

You always have to declare bank interest don't you? Or at least for the past few years; I think at some point it changed so that you are paid interest without any tax taken off whereas previously it was.

Yes, you should include bank interest on your Tax Returns even if it falls below the taxable level (£1,000 for basic rate tax payers and £500 for higher rate tax payers).

 

[bellaozzydog]

Ah fuck, thank you for reminding me

 

[magneze]

IIRC, whilst they ask you yes/no questions about this sort of stuff upfront, often the figures are asked for later in the process.

I believe the intention is so that they don't ask unnecessary questions later on.

 

[nick]

yep - tick that box and it will later on provide you with a dividends and interest page to complete. If you don't tick, you won't see it
ditto for property income for the rentiers amongst us

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

OK great. I just don't remember ever seeing it before. It must have been there though. Is it possible that a pop up used to say "if it's under £1000 don't bother"?
I fret about all this stuff so it seems odd that I wouldn't remember fretting about it previously.

 

[Chz]

I couldn't be arsed to calculate it, so I just said no. Given that it probably amounts to about £15 based on interest rates, I don't see what difference it makes and I'm perfectly comfortable with being audited. They probably owe me money, because my payback amount on child benefit looked a bit off to me but I couldn't figure out where it was wrong.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I couldn't be arsed to calculate it, so I just said no. Given that it probably amounts to about £15 based on interest rates, I don't see what difference it makes and I'm perfectly comfortable with being audited. They probably owe me money, because my payback amount on child benefit looked a bit off to me but I couldn't figure out where it was wrong.

Is that acceptable? Like you my intrest isn't going to be squat. I've been told by hmrc to officially do things that sound far more fudged than that.

 

[equationgirl]

I usually estimate my interest earned as £10 because I don't even think it's that much, and it's more effort to dig through paperwork to see what it actually is. It's never been questioned by HMRC.

 

[teuchter]

Many people will find that their interest earned on savings accounts etc will be rather more than they've been used to, just because of the big rise in interest rates between 2022 and 23.

 

[jontz01]

The search function on my online banking has an option to display interest. I type in the date range for that tax year and apply the filter... Failing that, interest payments usually have the description of interest. Export the years in/out as a csv, open in excel as sort by description to find whatever rows you need. Takes all of about 3 mins.

The frustrating part is getting timed out of online banking and hmrc websites and having to log in and do 2 factor authentication over and over and over again.

 

[friendofdorothy]

My civil partner gave me part of her tax free allowance after we got hitched some years ago when I had income and she didn't.

Now I have very little income and she needs to pay a tiny amount of tax we want to do it the other way around, so i give her 10% of my allowance and she wont have to pay anything. We tried to do this on the tax returns but the form wouldnt allow me to enter her details kept rejecting my attempts.

We submitted our forms anyway.

Is this a one way only forever deal? Or can we change it? How?

 

[Elpenor]

My civil partner gave me part of her tax free allowance after we got hitched some years ago when I had income and she didn't.

Now I have very little income and she needs to pay a tiny amount of tax we want to do it the other way around, so i give her 10% of my allowance and she wont have to pay anything. We tried to do this on the tax returns but the form wouldnt allow me to enter her details kept rejecting my attempts.

We submitted our forms anyway.

Is this a one way only forever deal? Or can we change it? How?

When I did this I called HMRC, taking 10% of my wife’s coding as she didn’t begin work until February of the tax year so wouldn’t exceed the PAYE threshold. Then when the new tax year began in April I called them to end the arrangement as we would both be earning above the PAYE threshold. This was in 2017 though.

So maybe you need to first end the existing arrangement whereby you have part of her tax allowance. Then start a new arrangement where she has part of yours.

 

[friendofdorothy]

When I did this I called HMRC, taking 10% of my wife’s coding as she didn’t begin work until February of the tax year so wouldn’t exceed the PAYE threshold. Then when the new tax year began in April I called them to end the arrangement as we would both be earning above the PAYE threshold. This was in 2017 though.

So maybe you need to first end the existing arrangement whereby you have part of her tax allowance. Then start a new arrangement where she has part of yours.

Thanks - so the advice is to phone them? Not looking forward to hanging on. Is it possible to write or email? not sure where to address it.

I couldn't see how to end the arrangement on the returns, and we have submitted the returns now anyway.

 

[Elpenor]

Thanks - so the advice is to phone them? Not looking forward to hanging on. Is it possible to write or email? not sure where to address it.

I couldn't see how to end the arrangement on the returns, and we have submitted the returns now anyway.

Looks like phone or online if you have a govt gateway account

Marriage Allowance

Marriage Allowance allows you to transfer some of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner: what you get and how to apply for free.

www.gov.uk

 

[friendofdorothy]

Looks like phone or online if you have a govt gateway account

Marriage Allowance

Marriage Allowance allows you to transfer some of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner: what you get and how to apply for free.

www.gov.uk

thank you so much! - I couldn't find that!

 

[magneze]

Phone them at 8am. It's a lot less waiting than other times in my experience.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Well the good news is that I only have to pay about £500 including my first payment on account. The bad news is that it's because I earned almost £20000 less. Bum. Wait until they get a load of 2023-2024. Unless something crazy happens in the next couple of months it's going to be half of 2022-2023.

Sigh.

 

[bemused]

Paid my 600 pounds

 

[teuchter]

Two days to go!

So, expenses.

Firstly there are expenses that are included on my invoices to people. These are usually things like travel expenses.

Secondly there are expenses that don't get invoiced to anyone, they are the general overheads I need to pay to keep things working.

The second type, I'm clear that these aren't included in what I put down as "turnover", and I put them in the expenses etc sections.

But what about the first type, are these excluded or included in "turnover"?

 

[Leafster]

Two days to go!

So, expenses.

Firstly there are expenses that are included on my invoices to people. These are usually things like travel expenses.

Secondly there are expenses that don't get invoiced to anyone, they are the general overheads I need to pay to keep things working.

The second type, I'm clear that these aren't included in what I put down as "turnover", and I put them in the expenses etc sections.

But what about the first type, are these excluded or included in "turnover"?

The first type should be included in your turnover as they are included in the total value of invoices you send to your clients.

 

[teuchter]

The first type should be included in your turnover as they are included in the total value of invoices you send to your clients.

Ok. Thank you.

(edited to add)
This means that what the tax return calls my "profit" is different to what I would call my "profit", is that right?

So if one year I invoice £10 and £9 of these invoices is expenses, and my general overheads are 50p, then I think I've made 50p profit but HMRC taxes me as if I've made £9.50 profit?

 

[mx wcfc]

Ok. Thank you.

(edited to add)
This means that what the tax return calls my "profit" is different to what I would call my "profit", is that right?

So if one year I invoice £10 and £9 of these invoices is expenses, and my general overheads are 50p, then I think I've made 50p profit but HMRC taxes me as if I've made £9.50 profit?

No. The £9 expenses is deductible.

 

[1927]

The first type should be included in your turnover as they are included in the total value of invoices you send to your clients.

But entered as expenses.

 

[teuchter]

Ah, ok, so they are included in "turnover" but can then go in as expenses if I want.

 

[1927]

Ah, ok, so they are included in "turnover" but can then go in as expenses if I want.

Why would you not want?

 

[mx wcfc]

I think technically the direct expenses are a cost of sale, rather than an expense, but it amounts to the same thing. They come off turnover before you get to taxable profit.

 

[teuchter]

Why would you not want?

For example, if they are small and I opt to just use the £1000 allowance instead of totting up the actual value, because they are likely to come to less than that.