Have you submitted your tax return?
The countdown has begun for this years’ online tax return, a crucial time for around 11 million taxpayers who are self employed or receive other income that requires the submission of a tax return, which is normally rental income, or interest and dividend income that is liable to income tax. Because of changes made to the taxation of dividends with effect from 6 April 2017, any one who receives more than £5,000 of dividends in a year is likely to have an income tax liability, even if they are only basic rate taxpayers. In the past only higher rate taxpayers have had to pay any tax on their dividend income.
It is also necessary to submit a tax return if you have realized capital gains on which a tax liability arises, or if you have made a loss on the disposal of a capital asset that you want to carry forward to set against future gains.
The deadline for submitting a paper return expired on October 31st 2017, so it now must be done online, either by filing yourself via hmrc.gov.uk or asking your accountant to deal with it using their own software, with the deadline being 31st January 2018.
Last year it was announced that 840,000 people missed the deadline and this left them with an automatic £100 fine, even if they did not owe any tax at all.
Moore (South) LLP recommend always doing tax returns online, even those that are submitted by 31 October. The reason for this is because you have the certainty of knowing that the return has been received by HMRC as soon as it has been submitted.
For property investors, you may need to submit a tax return if you received more than £2,500 from renting out a property, or owe capital gains tax after selling shares or a second home. If your rental income is less than £2,500 you still have to pay income tax on it, but HMRC may be prepared to deal with this through your PAYE notice of coding without the formality of issuing a self assessment tax return.
If you need help completing and submitting your tax return then please get in touch with your local Moore office.
Southampton: 02380 330 116
Chichester: 01243 531 600
Newport (IOW): 01983 825 000
Salisbury: 01722 335 182
Guildford: 01483 538 881