Tax return time!

[Knopfler]

Thanks for your reply @Andrew The surveys are mainly pinecone, prolific, wud, edigital and total around £200. I don't tend to do 'points' ones.

I registered when I first started, so obviously did not know how good or bad my 'earnings' would be or what jobs I would end up doing regularly. I have also applied to Appen and done a couple of data tasks so far.

What work from home costs do you put in? I am struggling to work out what to do for broadband - the utility is a flat rate of £10 but this does not include broadband.

Do you need to provide bills or receipts for anything?

Thanks

 

[Andrew]

Pine cone is points so you're ok on that one. ptobsbly best to give HMRCs self assessment helpline a ring. Takes about 45 minutes for them to pick up so you can put the phone on speaker and do a couple of surveys while you're waiting! I put my broadband on separately and leave them to work it out. Don't forget to include mileage as well of you do anything outside of home. Think the allowance is 0.45 a mile and it goes a long way towards wiping out my tax liability!

 

[Knopfler]

Thanks @Andrew. Slapped wrist over Pinecone, ha ha - I forgot that one was points.
Mileage is not a problem as I am semi-housebound, which means I miss out on all the great Mystery Shop earners that people like Mabozza earn mega-bucks with, sigh!

I might just put my broadband on separately too. Do you put the full amount and a rough estimate of the hours spent online looking and doing work?

 

[Andrew]

Thanks @Andrew. Slapped wrist over Pinecone, ha ha - I forgot that one was points.
Mileage is not a problem as I am semi-housebound, which means I miss out on all the great Mystery Shop earners that people like Mabozza earn mega-bucks with, sigh!

I might just put my broadband on separately too. Do you put the full amount and a rough estimate of the hours spent online looking and doing work?

I do. The rough estimate is usually weighed in my favour. But I can encourage you to be anything other than completely honest of course!

 

[taffynoel]

Is it possible to do a self assessment WITHOUT being registered self employed, or do the two go hand in hand?

 

[Jon]

Is it possible to do a self assessment WITHOUT being registered self employed, or do the two go hand in hand?

No,

Why would you not want to register as self employed when you are earning money 'as' self employed.

 

[taffynoel]

btw I will be including mileage to jobs that were rejected (sadly some are) in my deductions. The way I see it my profit is the sum of all income less all expenses in the pursuit of said income, and fair to calculate on an app (or even a 'field') level rather than job by job.

Im also going to estimate the data I use per month based a a fair % of my contract else the cost of data add one purchased explicitly to keep my earning potential alive... And deduct that from profits. I'm thinking 5GB @ £12.99 is a fair overhead to build in per month, I've used a lot of that on supermarket jobs with 20 or so pics a time.

I'm keeping figures to prove all this but in reporting I presume I'll just declare vouchers as tax free (if declared at all), my field work income and estimated overhead for the year, all compounded together, and anything from WFH ventures or mystery shopping.

I'm trying to be fair, does any of this sound in anyway wrong??

 

[taffynoel]

No,

Why would you not want to register as self employed when you are earning money 'as' self employed.

That's ok I presumed the same, it's logical, but knew I'd get the answer here I could trust.

In answer to your question, I didn't know if it could effect my full time job in terms of pay/admin, but there's nothing stopping people earning in addition to their employment so all good

 

[Jon]

That's ok I presumed the same, it's logical, but knew I'd get the answer here I could trust.

In answer to your question, I didn't know if it could effect my full time job in terms of pay/admin, but there's nothing stopping people earning in addition to their employment so all good

I work full time and earn SE on top as well

The only way it makes a difference is if you earn less than 10k a year SE you can choose to pay your tax+ni over 12 months as they take it from your PAYE

 

[taffynoel]

I work full time and earn SE on top as well

The only way it makes a difference is if you earn less than 10k a year SE you can choose to pay your tax+ni over 12 months as they take it from your PAYE

Not sure I like that at all. I'm only aiming for a few hours a week netting me a few k per year, say £3000, so looks like I have the option... But I'd much rather leave my full time job accounts as they are tax wise.

Can you confirm I can choose to simply manage my SE tax affairs annually and separately to my day job. If so I'll just make sure I account for the year end deduction in advance.

 

[Jon]

You don't have to pay your tax that way

You can either pay a lump sum or have it taken out of your PAYE

you choose but either way you need to register as self employed with HMRC

 

[Hezzy]

I hope everyone has done their return - not long left to go!
I helped a friend do their return via the gov gateway system last week and didn’t realise that on submitting you have to re-validate the log in - good thing we re- checked after a couple of days to make sure it had gone through and resent it.

 

[MuchMoreWithLess]

Yet again, it's January and I still haven't done my tax return. Will have to force myself soon. Had seen taxcalc software recommended to help, and wondered if I could ask if anyone has tried it?

 

[Jon]

Yet again, it's January and I still haven't done my tax return. Will have to force myself soon. Had seen taxcalc software recommended to help, and wondered if I could ask if anyone has tried it?

I’ve literally used nothing more than an excel sheet and the account history on my HSBC account

What advantage does taxcalc bring?

 

[MuchMoreWithLess]

I’ve literally used nothing more than an excel sheet and the account history on my HSBC account

What advantage does taxcalc bring?

Yup I've only ever used an excel spreadsheet and piles of paperwork in the past. This year I'll be hit with more tax than before though, so was hoping for something that could guide me through more expenses I can deduct as self-employed. Think you can deduct a bit of council tax, for example, if you work from home - but I don't want to get it wrong!

 

[Jon]

Yup I've only ever used an excel spreadsheet and piles of paperwork in the past. This year I'll be hit with more tax than before though, so was hoping for something that could guide me through more expenses I can deduct as self-employed. Think you can deduct a bit of council tax, for example, if you work from home - but I don't want to get it wrong!

Oh right, never knew this but then I still work in my main job 4 days a week so claim naff all in terms of expeneses like laptops / printers etc lol

 

[MuchMoreWithLess]

Oh right, never knew this but then I still work in my main job 4 days a week so claim naff all in terms of expeneses like laptops / printers etc lol

Yes I've only ever claimed a bit for travel and printer ink, pretty sure I could claim more! Been eyeing up stuff like phone bills and contribution to heat and light.

 

[Hezzy]

Yeh I do my own and also help a couple of others, and I would think unless you've got complicated stuff to do - overseas, trusts, high number of income streams, you should be ok with trusty excel.
the software will just ask you the questions that the return form asks you in any case. that's what I find odd about when people use a firm to do their simple returns - you just get sent what is essentially the same form to fill in and they just re-input the stuff!

 

[Jon]

Well it’s just about the end of the tax year!!

Everyone ready to start submitting their tax return in 2 weeks lol

 

[Jon]

@katykicker is already doing hers!!!

I'm just not THAT organised lol