I am self employed for the first time and need to do my return. When is the deadline and any tips on expenses etc?

When did you start up?

Hire an accountant if you want tips.

Latest date for 2012/13 tax year is 31st Jan 2014 (at which point all your tax is due too). Think you can file it anytime though – if you do up till Sept, they’ll calculate your tax for you.

I started April 2012 so have a full year in….I have expenses to offset tax such as fuel, stationery, travel, etc…

Any other valid expenses?

Btw I am a consultant engineer

Professional subscriptions?

As stated above

Hire an accountant if you want tips.

It’ll pay for itself many times over

Use of home.
Broadband.
Land Line.
Clothing.
Depreciation on vehicle.

There are loads of things for which you can claim, but an accountant will let know what you can get away with claim for, depending on your line of work.

You need an accountant.

I’m self-employed as a sole trader so the following is my crude understanding of the situation:

Your tax return is due Jan 31st the year following (so your tax return for the financial year Apr 2012 to Apr 2013 is due by Jan 31st 2014).

You pay your tax in two lumps:

1) Jan 31st you pay half ‘on account’ (for the year coming due, i.e. 2013/14)
2) July 31st you pay second half ‘on account’ (again 2013/14)

Then next Jan (2014) you settle up your ‘on account’ payments for the year 2013/14 when you submit your tax return for that period in addition to paying half on account for the period 2014/15 (and the above pattern repeats).

Don’t forget you need to be VAT registered if your earnings are above the VAT registration threshold.

But I’m not an accountant, so don’t take my word as gospel.

And don’t forget you have to pay self-employed NI contributions too.

Professional subscriptions I have!

Work from home so I guess heating, lighting etc…

There are limits on things like heating, lighting etc even if you’re working from home. You need an accountant.

You also need to be careful about working from home – that could be interpreted as an unauthorized change of use (in planning terms) from a C3 dwelling house use to an A2 professional services use (if you’re not careful).

I’m not an accountant, but planning I do know 🙂

Work from home so I guess heating, lighting etc…

Nope!

You’ll be able to claim an allowance for “Use of Home” but not all the bills that you pay. The taxman’s no eejit. 🙂

Not all subscriptions and training for new skills are allowable for tax.

Have a read of these

Items you may be able to claim if business related

Allowable subscriptions

I hope you have already registered as self employed with HMRC as they applying fines for late notification.

Don’t forget to account for your other income including interest received and offset.

It’s nothing but ambrosia being self-employed, eh? 😆

Just out of interest, what’s the going rate for hiring an accountant, and how do you find a good one?

A good accountant will pay for themselves by making sure you pay the correct amount of tax. Last time I had on done it was about £100.

How to find a good one, usually by word of mouth. Ask around

i pay around £350 for my years accounts which is good value ..

ive been with the same accountant for 25yrs and had only one inspection in that time and the revenue owed me £100 after that !!!!

some accountants charge the earth so do get quotes and avoid fancy offices and lots of flashy cars etc (my accountant has his office and 2 staff at his house so no large bills for grabbing councils, landlords and business loans for big egos)

I just got my accountants estimate…. bit of a nasty suprise! I knew i would owe £X in january but didnt know they would like an additional %50 of this as a forward payment on projected earnings!.. ouch. My advise is get an accountant, it’ll cost about £300 and will save you from potentially nasty suprises/bills!.

Just to throw in the other point of view. I just do my own accounts. Put the receipts in pile then every couple of months type them into a spreadsheet. At the end of the year fill in the on-line form and pay the man. I did buy this book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Business-Tax-Saving-Tactics/dp/190730228X) and spend a bit of time on the HMRC website. Not sure an accountant could save me over £300 a year, that is a big chunk of my tax bill as I’m not a high roller with a fancy watch, but it might give peace of mind that I’ve not done something wrong.

The hardest part is remembering every time I check my balance that a chunk of it isn’t mine, but belongs to the tax man

Ha, I sorted all my tax returns over a year ago…..
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sUvtjJrvkM[/video]

DrP

I charge around £250 (tax allowable expense so only actually costing you £200) for the accounts and £80 (non tax allowable) for the tax return. Depending on the work required.
For that you obviously get the tax return calculated and submitted. You also get a set of bound and formatted accounts which are becoming requested more by lenders who have taken submitted tax returns with a pinch of salt. It also enables the business to understand how they performed that year so that can improve in the next period. We also deal with any enquiries with HMRC which are normally to resolve quickly with correction calculations and documentation to back them up. For the fee I think what you get is great value.