Tax return blues - would a bit of solidarity help?

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I wonder if I have done that before and forgotten?
It's shaved about £300 off my tax bill.

It also did an annoying thing though. I couldn't even stick a 0 in my expenses box to stop another RED ALERT telling me I had made an error and could not leave the page. I had to say I would do a detailed breakdown of expenses on the next page, then used the back button on the next page to go back and deselect the expenses section.

 

[furluxor]

I knew it was coming, but I've been asked to pay on account. I get the reasoning, but it's brutal to a pay an entire years tax bill and find part of the money for the next.

It's hideous. I paid a fortune on account last year, and this year I've filed a request to reduce my payments on account to £0 as I don't expect to earn anywhere near as much. Which may turn out to have been a lie, but it was an honest belief when I was filling in the form.

My partner saw my tax bill and we considered moving countries. But having ranted for a bit, we cooled off and decided to stay

 

[teuchter]

This bit here . . . . ?

View attachment 460528

I didn't know that at all.
It's not worded brilliantly. I probably just jumped right over it. It's never been flagged. It might have also been better to instead of just giving me a RED ALERT, to explain why that red alert was flagged up.

Same with the voluntary NICs. "if your income is too low do you want to pay voluntary NIC2s?" So I click YES. "You can't click yes so click no" Huh? "Yeah, also no means yes"

I agree it's not worded or flagged brilliantly, like much of the forms.

Most of these things, I find that once I understand it, if I go back and read the wording it seems reasonably clear. But on first reading, when I'm in a general state of confusion, it doesn't seem like that at all.

For those of us who aren't accountants it would be good if the forms were written in such a way that whenever a particular term is used, a link to its definition is provided. For example, what are the precise definitions of profits, turnover, income, earnings and expenses.

I find the Moneysavingexpert forums are pretty good for working out what to do, by the way.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I agree it's not worded or flagged brilliantly, like much of the forms.

Most of these things, I find that once I understand it, if I go back and read the wording it seems reasonably clear. But on first reading, when I'm in a general state of confusion, it doesn't seem like that at all.

For those of us who aren't accountants it would be good if the forms were written in such a way that whenever a particular term is used, a link to its definition is provided. For example, what are the precise definitions of profits, turnover, income, earnings and expenses.

I find the Moneysavingexpert forums are pretty good for working out what to do, by the way.

I just checked and I have not used this before.
G'damn it.
It may be possible to go back and amend previous years returns and get a rebate.
I have amended a return before when I accidentally forgot to submit an invoice. It cost me £100 in fuck up fees and the extra tax on the invoice (and interest) but other than that was fairly painless.
Even if I had to pay £100 fuck up fee, I think it would end up saving me roughly £170 . . . so £70 cash back.

It's probably worth a phone call to HMRC first (I generally have found them to be quite helpful), but now is probably not the time to do that.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Return Submitted. I think I am going to get a £5000 rebate.
Sounds good. . . but obviously not really. Work has been shrinking year on year since covid.