Autumn is officially upon us, and as we say goodbye to the Summer (not that the weather made it feel very summery!) and look forward to the remainder of the year, now is the perfect time to sort out your self assessment affairs for the tax year that ended in April. Whilst the deadline for the return isn’t until 31st January 2022, there are many reasons why getting it submitted early will benefit you.
No Penalty
If your return is filed late, you will instantly receive a £100 penalty (this increases the later the return becomes) and if your payment is late, you will also be charged interest on the amount due. The earlier you get your return filed, the earlier you can relax in the knowledge that you will not be receiving a penalty this year.
Stress-busting
Of course, no one enjoys preparing self assessment returns, but as with anything in life, the dread of having to complete it may be worse than the reality. By completing your tax return early, you will have the heads up well in advance of the payment deadline as to how much you are going to owe, therefore giving you time to get that money set aside (if you haven’t already). Leaving filing until the last minute won’t change the amount that you owe, but will just leave you with less time to prepare for the payment, and make the experience all that more stressful for you.
Many people worry that any tax due will be payable as soon as the return is filed, meaning that they put off submitting their return until they can pay the tax. This is not the case. Submitting your return early will not bring the payment deadline forward. Whether you submit your return the day after the tax year ends, or the day before the deadline, your tax will still be due on the same date, 31st January 2022. So, don’t let this put you off filing your return early.
Avoid Mistakes
If you leave the return to the last minute, you are much more likely to make errors in your haste, and, if you have an accountant, you will not be leaving adequate time for them to raise any queries with the details you submit. If you prepare your self assessment now however, you are leaving plenty of time to find any missing receipts, or look into any discrepancies that you may find.
If you are filing your return yourself and you haven’t filed before, you need to have an HMRC Government Gateway login to do it online, and HMRC can take 7 working days to send this out, so do bear this in mind as well. HMRC can charge penalties of up to 30% for careless mistakes on self assessment returns, it is so important to take your time to prepare your return properly.
Get Your Refund!
If you are lucky enough to be due a refund from HMRC, you’d be crazy not to get your return filed early! By getting it filed well before the deadline, you are getting your refund request submitted before HMRC are overrun with tax returns around deadline day. Having filed thousands of tax returns in our time, we can pretty much guarantee that if you submit your return now, you’ll get your refund a lot quicker than if you wait until January.
So don’t delay, get that self assessment submitted today.
PaperRocket Accounting provide accounting and tax services to professional contractors, freelancers, and small businesses working in the UK.
We offer our clients a flexible choice of fixed fee monthly packages which cover all of their accounting and tax needs (so no hidden costs or surprise bills!). All of our accounting packages include a monthly subscription for a cloud accounting software subscription provided by the awarding winning FreeAgent.
Each of our clients is given their own dedicated qualified accountant with unlimited access in person, telephone, or by email.
We pride ourselves on our client satisfaction and customer service and were awarded ‘Best Contractor Accountancy’ firm 2020 in The Contracting Awards and ‘Welwyn Hatfield Business of the Year 2019’ in the SME Hertfordshire awards.
To find out how we can help you please get in touch now.
