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Financial year end is coming. Get organised now.

By Paperstone on March 22, 2018 in Office Life

Tax Year

It’s the end of the current tax year on April 5 – and a good time to double-check your financial records.

You won’t need to submit an online self-assessment form for 2017-18 for many months (the deadline is January 31 next year). But it’s good to get your end-of-year accounts organised well in advance. This is particularly important if you’re self-employed or run a business. We offer a wide range of filing and archiving solutions.

You can chase up any missing documents and avoid a last-minute panic in January, which would not be good for your nerves and might result in a fine.

Help and tools

HMRC provide a lot of helpsheets and information online to help with the process of self-assessment, explaining the rules of Capital Gains Tax, income from property rentals, tax from income generated abroad, and many more issues related to tax liability.

Don’t forget that if self-assessment is new to you, you must register with HMRC before filling in your tax return and you should allow several weeks for this process to be completed.

If you’re an employee without any part-time business activities, you may not need to submit a tax return. If in doubt, check with HMRC or your HR department. There’s also a useful online tool to help you check if you need to fill in a self-assessment form.

HMRC will calculate your liability from the figures you submit, and you should pay this bill before the end of January 2019(the exception being if your business has a different tax year, which some do).

If you’ve given any charitable donations over the year, make sure you inform HMRC as this should reduce your tax bill.

 Tax rule changes

After April 6, there will be some minor changes in tax rules which will affect your liability in the financial year 2018-19. These will come into effect as a result of the last budget. The good news is that the personal allowance (the amount you can earn without paying any tax) is rising from £11,500 to £11,850, meaning most people will end up with an extra £70 in their pockets. The threshold for higher rate income tax of 40% is also increasing from £45,000 to £46,500.

Useful office products for financial year end

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