any accountants on here ? self assessment help . . .

[billyiddo]

just roughly working out my SA, only worked 5 months of the last tax year as i was travelling for the rest, does 3k expenses sound too much for that period ?

that plus my personal allowance leaves me with quite a hefty rebate - don't want to attract attention from the tax man basically as i haven't been too good with keeping receipts

 

[THFC]

My advice - tax doesn't have to be taxing, that is all I can offer you

P.s i'm not an accountant

 

[DHSF]

I am a qualified accountant but ill be honest with you - I wouldnt even take my own advice.

So cant help you - im very very sorry.

 

[Gifter]

I am a qualified accountant but ill be honest with you - I wouldnt even take my own advice.

So cant help you - im very very sorry.

It's nice when your self perception matches others perceptions of yourself though isn't it!

Billy, just post up your query, I'm no accountant but have run a company for a number of years, done the companies VAT, P11, 14, 35, 45, 60's and ledger etc so might have an idea (doubt it though as it was mostly crude guesswork!).

 

[DHSF]

It's nice when your self perception matches others perceptions of yourself though isn't it!

Billy, just post up your query, I'm no accountant but have run a company for a number of years, done the companies VAT, P11, 14, 35, 45, 60's and ledger etc so might have an idea (doubt it though as it was mostly crude guesswork!).

haha so rude man.

Im an Auditor although qualified accountant. I dont really know too much about self assessments.

 

[billyiddo]

just updated the OP Gifter - the 3k breaks down to 1,325 travel (53 p/w travelcard) 1,250 subsistence (50 p/w) and then some tools/phone bills and use of home

i just don't want to put in a SA that will bring attention basically - it's all pretty much accurate (if anything it's a little under) but that leaves me having paid less than 1k over the 5 months tax

 

[DHSF]

In all honesty, that sounds fine. Reasonable expenses with receipts are fine. if you dont have receipts you can use items on bank statements or even a log book especially regarding the smaller expenses like parking etc.

 

[Gifter]

My experience is that they (HMRC) will never ask for receipts (though the accountant, if you use one, always asks for them), my dad who worked for my company was rubbish at keeping them and we were expensing off about ?ú20K a year on his return and through the ledger, never a peep from HMRC about it.

I wouldn't sweat it as long as you have 'most' of the receipts. But I'm not sure if they look any deeper when you are claiming a rebate (doubt it on such triial sums), only ever got VAT rebates as the accountant was good with asset depreciation and didn't charge extra for doing that.

Self Assessment (as far as I know) isn't a guarantee of accuracy, just 'to the best of my knowledge' which leaves a big wide hole for 'misunderstanding' anyway Though I would search around moneysavingexpert et al if you are fretting about it.

 

[billyiddo]

nice one guys, appreciated

 

[Sheikh Ma Nuggets]

just roughly working out my SA, only worked 5 months of the last tax year as i was travelling for the rest, does 3k expenses sound too much for that period ?

that plus my personal allowance leaves me with quite a hefty rebate - don't want to attract attention from the tax man basically as i haven't been too good with keeping receipts

Depends what you earn really. For argument sake, if you earned ?ú30k over 5mths, then 10% expenses isn't a big deal. If however you earned ?ú10k over 5mths, then 30% expenses is questionable. All about materiality to your relative earnings.

I once forgot to get a VAT receipt on a tank of fuel which I claimed back on and fudge me the amount of time HMRC spent scrutinising every single detail on my SA was unbelievable, even though every single other item was 110% kosher. I'm now meticulous in keeping receipts, and I wouldn't advise you submit without being able to substantiate it or else you're gonna be taking a walk down brick street mate.

 

[billyiddo]

Depends what you earn really. For argument sake, if you earned ?ú30k over 5mths, then 10% expenses isn't a big deal. If however you earned ?ú10k over 5mths, then 30% expenses is questionable. All about materiality to your relative earnings.

I once forgot to get a VAT receipt on a tank of fuel which I claimed back on and fudge me the amount of time HMRC spent scrutinising every single detail on my SA was unbelievable, even though every single other item was 110% kosher. I'm now meticulous in keeping receipts, and I wouldn't advise you submit without being able to substantiate it or else you're gonna be taking a walk down brick street mate.

so what's the crack with self assessment and receipts ? do you have to submit them from the beginning or will they get back to you if they want to look a little closer ?

3k is roughly 20% of my earnings (gross) over that period

I've always used a rebate specialist tax firm before and haven't had any come backs - are you more likely to be looked at if you submit a SA?

 

[Gifter]

They must be after you sheikh! Never had anything back from then, but I guess the %'s I've done have always been low.

When you say brick street what do you mean? I thought it was just that they would disallow unprovable expenses and ask you to move that to your paye/P11?

It does get quite complicated I guess as that portal deals with multiple industries with differing regulations.

This past year I intentionally spoilt my return (entered NIL in everything), as now I am working direct for an employer and have twice phoned the helpline to ask how I need to complete my return (in the two years before this) so I would not need to do a SA return next year, only to then get another return request this year after doing exactly as advised Grrrrrrrr. I've not heard anything back about that either.

 

[scaramanga]

so what's the crack with self assessment and receipts ? do you have to submit them from the beginning or will they get back to you if they want to look a little closer ?

3k is roughly 20% of my earnings (gross) over that period

I've always used a rebate specialist tax firm before and haven't had any come backs - are you more likely to be looked at if you submit a SA?

Don't volunteer them, but have them available (preferably sorted) in case they ask.

As long as you have receipts for everything it's almost impossible for them to show that they weren't legitimate expenses so the theory goes that there's no maximum percentage - the amounts you've stated should be fine.

For anything where you don't have a receipt you're better off sticking to a scale rate for expenses:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/wwsr-bench.pdf

 

[billyiddo]

cheers Scara

is it likely to raise questions if i was to round off my expenses, rather than to the penny ?

 

[scaramanga]

cheers Scara

is it likely to raise questions if i was to round off my expenses, rather than to the penny ?

I've never rounded off, as they do analyse everything statistically now (there are formulae you can apply to batches of expenses which will tell you when figures aren't random) so rounding will draw attention - that's not to say they'll audit on the basis of rounding but I've always preferred not to draw attention.