11 days to complete these now!
I have most my info and am trying to find an answer on completing the return but Google hasn't been my friend.
I have earned interest and dividends over the tax year.
Both are under the £500 and £5,000 limits respectively. Do I need to report the earnings on the return anyway?
|
Do you even need to submit a tax return?
>>Do I need to report the earnings on the return anyway?
Yes.
>>What happens if I *overstate* them as being £480 and £4700 when in reality they were perhaps more like £75 and £2300.
Well, there would be no impact on your overall tax bill. You would have overstated your income rather than understating it.
|
Thanks.
I am not happy to give the tax man more info then they need and technically they don't need that info if there is no tax to pay on it!
|
>> I am not happy to give the tax man more info then they need
Just don't try and use any of the following excuses for it being late.
economia.icaew.com/en/news/january-2018/best-late-tax-returns-excuses-and-expense-claims
|
>> Thanks.
>>
>> I am not happy to give the tax man more info then they need and
You're more likely to create a problem by withholding or misstating stuff than by declaring it.
The chances of a personal self-assessment for any normal kind of income triggering an investigation are pretty slender, but I imagine there are algorithms that try to pick up inconsistencies.
I've only ever had one query on my tax return, probably 20 years ago, asking for a breakdown of my business mileage!
>> technically they don't need that info if there is no tax to pay on it!
You might be right. From www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends
"Less than £5,000
You don’t need to do anything or pay any tax."
My wife and I are (the only) shareholders in a company. We paid out 5,000 dividend to each of us last year. I hadn't twigged that had it been 4999 I could possibly have omitted it from our returns. Not that it matters; we have no other divs outside ISAs or pensions and the tax calculation didn't knock anything off for them.
Actually as we are directors I think I would have put it on anyway. I have a vague notion that for companies one is a director of, full disclosure is required/advisable.
For married folks, don't forget that 10% of the personal allowance can be transferred to a spouse with less than £43,000 of taxable income (e.g. me).
|
If you are not sure, phone HMRC, I found them very helpful.
As a rule of thumb, if you earn it, report it - I got £50 from YouGov for filling in their mindless surveys and declared that, as I do with Christmas bonuses and tips. Better safe than sorry.
|
|
I overstated my income in the same way (deliberately) in 2009. Caused me quite a few problems in following years - finally resolved 2 years ago - just a pain to get it right. HMRC assumed this overstating was something that carried on every year thereafter. I knew I was paying the right amount of tax, just that it appeared on my tax coding year after year as if it was Gospel. I simplified my tax affairs greatly after my first wife died and I effectively retired. I know finally have a proper tax code that makes it worthwhile working for pin money. My circumstances were complex in 2009/10.
|
Did the Dividend allowance drop to £1,000 from £5,000 for 2017/18?
If it did I think I will transfer some shares to my Mrs to reduce my Mrs.
|
2017/8 is still £5000 drops to 2000 next year I think
|
>>as I do with Christmas bonuses and tips
not all of them surely? Enough to keep you off the radar?
|
>>not all of them surely? Enough to keep you off the radar?<<
Every penny. I fall below the income tax threshold anyway so no penalty for honesty in my case.
|
"If you are not sure, phone HMRC..."
Indeed - it has been my experience that they are helpful.
However, this year I had a query and decided to try their Twitter account (as I thought, perhaps wrongly, that the phone lines would be jammed at this time of year), which worked very well; there was a couple of messages each way over about four hours and I got the answer I needed.
|
|
You can do an online "chat" with HMRC.
|
>> As a rule of thumb, if you earn it, report it - I got £50
>> from YouGov for filling in their mindless surveys and declared that,
Not taxable. Any more than the cashback on your credit card.
|
>>Not taxable. Any more than the cashback on your credit card.<<
Can you link the HMRC guide which says a self employed person does not need to declare an additional source of income?
|
It has nothing to do with being self-employed. It isn't income from your business. If it's taxable then it's taxable as 'miscellaneous income' rather than as a part of your self-employment.
A one-off survey payment of £50 just isn't of consequence, HMRC would not expect anybody to include it. Most people do not do a tax return and would not be expected to submit one for the sake of a £50 payment. On the other hand, if you're doing a lot of these surveys, and making a lot of money, then you perhaps do have a self-employment situation in respect of them.
|
HMRC said declare it when I asked so ill take their word for it since one assumes they know what they are talking about.
|
2016/17 Tax Returns - Mapmaker
