A Guide to Self-Assessment Tax Returns for Small Businesses

This guest post should be especially helpful for our European readers as their tax deadline is less than a week away.  Read on to learn how you can successfully prepare your self-assessment tax return.

The deadline date for submitting your tax return is creeping up – 31^st January is just around the corner and many first time submitters may have been putting bringing together their company accounts and  doing their return out of fear or ignorance of how it should be done. Fear not, filling out a self-assessment form couldn’t be simpler.

You should first put together a checklist to ensure that you get everything done that needs to be. At the top of it should come reading through the booklet that the tax office sends you along with your paper return: this may sound obvious, but the booklet will give you great insight into what the tax office expects to see on your return.

You should then look closely at your paper return to ensure it contains all of the pages and documents you need. If you need additional pages, you can request these from the tax office. If you prefer to fill this out online you can do so and the bonus of doing it this way is there’s no fear of running out of space on your return and you’ll have your tax bill calculated on the spot as soon as you submit your return.

Gather together all of the documents you might need to ensure your tax return is fully completed. You’ll need your financial records for the tax year to hand, including your profit and loss account and a note of your business expenses. You’ll also need to gather together relevant forms from the tax office, such as a P60, P45 and P11D. You’ll also need to know your PAYE code: if you don’t already know your PAYE code, speak to the tax office to receive an emergency code to tide you over until the next financial year.

With all this to hand filling out your self-assessment tax return should be a breeze so don’t hang around – get it filled out now and don’t run the risk of getting hit with a hefty fine for a late submission.