Doing your Self Employed Tax Return ...

I know some of you may still be working on your tax returns. Here's a tip to make it less frantic for next year...

Take your lovely new shiny 2017 diary and put a note in for 2nd week in April to say "Start doing my tax return". If you have children who are home for the hols then maybe put this in for the first week of the summer term instead.

Returns are so much easier to do when they are fresh in your head (and you haven't mislaid your box of receipts!), and you will find that HMRC (and your accountant if you have one) are far less busy and have more time available to answer your questions. You still don't have to pay your tax bill till the usual time!

You'll also find next year's return easier because you've only just done this one, so the process will be fresh!

From a business perspective, it's better to know how you did last year asap as then you have some concrete information to inform your planning.

Go to it, and good luck!

PS If you need your P60 from your day job too, then get the self employed stuff done first and you can just add that in when it arrives!

EDIT 17/1/17: Thanks to the lovely people over at Which for getting in touch to let me know that they also offer a new simple (no jargon!) calculator (officially recognised by HMRC) for filling out your tax return (small fee to submit to HMRC). If you're interested, this can be found here: www.which.co.uk/money/tax-calculator