If you are not a big fan of filing taxes, then tax return time may be very stressful for you. And in this stress, you are likely to make a few errors that can lead to heavy penalties from HMRC.
Thus, here are the 5 biggest mistakes that you need to avoid when filing taxes if you are self-employed:-
Not getting registered with HMRC for Self Assessment:-
You must register with HMRC if you earn more than £1,000 from one or more activities. People frequently mistake this for the basic personal allowance, believing that they are exempt from registering with HMRC unless their income exceeds a certain threshold. This isn’t the case, though.
Everyone has the right to make a certain amount of money without having to pay taxes on it. This is known as the personal allowance. The crucial thing to remember is that if your income is below the personal allowance threshold, you must accurately report your income for the tax year to HMRC and submit it to HMRC.
Before filing a self-assessment tax return, you must first register as a self-employed person.
You must complete the registration and tax return before the deadline to avoid significant penalties and fines. In addition, you may not obtain your UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference) timely if HMRC has not been notified that you are self-employed or that you need to file a self-assessment tax return.
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Not including supplementary pages:-
Supplementary pages are required for extra income not included in the main tax return.
Additional information that may be valuable consists of the following:
- Life insurance gains
- Income from share schemes
- Claims from loss relief
- Age-related Married Couple’s Allowance claim
- Certain employment deductions
- Stock dividends written off
- Close company loans written off
- Interest from accrued income profits
- Income received from property
- Tax reliefs that are not a part of your main tax return
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Not declaring all income or capital gains:-
Another error you should avoid is misinterpreting your earnings. Every year, thousands of people in the UK face penalties and tax surcharges due to negligence or presenting incomplete financial records to their accountants. If you underreport your income on your self-assessment tax return, you will face fines.
What you’ll be charged with will depend on whether HMRC believes you were simply careless or intended to deceive them about your earnings.
If you’ve been negligent and irresponsible, the penalty will range from 0 per cent to 30 per cent of the additional tax owed. The penalty ranges from 20 per cent to 70 per cent if you have purposefully understated your tax liability. The penalty for intentionally underestimating your tax and attempting to cover up the truth will range from 30 per cent to 100 per cent.
Throughout the tax year, you should make a point of keeping and recording all receipts and invoices. HMRC may request proof of expenses if you are claiming them back. It will help you account for everything and avoid any potential misreporting if you keep a good record.
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High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge:-
Receiving Child Benefit yearly can be a tremendous assistance in budgeting. However, if you or your partner have an annual income of more than £50,000, you may be subject to the High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge.
- Not filing and paying taxes by the deadline:-
In case of the online process, you must finish filing your taxes by January 31st at midnight following the end of the fiscal year on April 5th. If you’re mailing your tax return, HMRC must receive it by October 31st after the end of the fiscal year on April 5th.
Extending deadlines is a rare occurrence, so don’t expect it to happen frequently. Instead, you should always aim to complete and submit your self-assessment return by January 31st. If you don’t file your return on time, you may owe double the amount of tax.
January 31st is also the deadline for paying any tax payments due. HMRC will charge you interest on late payments if you are unable to make timely tax payments.
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Other mistakes that you should avoid while filing taxes:-
- It’s important to double-check your calculation as calculation errors will lead to incorrect figures.
- Some laws determine which expenses you can and cannot deduct while filing taxes. Claiming expenses that aren’t qualified can have serious implications. You could face a fine of up to 100% of your tax bill if you knowingly under-declare tax payable, in addition to incurring interest on the underpayment of tax.
- Not verifying whether you are on the correct tax code or not may result in you paying more tax than required.
- Incorrectly ticking boxes can result in HMRC investigating your taxes, as well as a penalty for giving incorrect and misleading information. To avoid this, you can follow the step-by-step instructions in the guide provided by the HMRC in your tax return.
- While submitting your self-assessment return, you must use your tax-free allowances. Some tax-free allowances are automatically applied to your tax account (including the Personal Allowance, Property Allowance and Trading Allowance). But there are also some allowances that you need to apply for yourself like Marriage Allowance, Rent a Room Scheme, and more.
If you face any problems in tax filing, then you can take help from an accounting firm that can advise you on tax-related matters, or you can search “tax advisor near me” on Google.