How to get help with your Self Assessment tax return

Oh no, is it that time of year again? The dreaded Self Assessment tax return – working out how much came in, how much went out, which expenses can you get tax off, which expenses you can't (does the gym count?). It can all be a bit overwhelming. No wonder most people leave it until January each year, and even then right on the last day!

We completely get it, we have to do ours too here at Nuts About Money, and it can be a real pain trying to do it yourself. It really is taxing! 

But don’t worry, these days, there’s help out there, you don’t have to do it by yourself, you can simply let the experts take care of it all for you, and for a great cost – which is also tax deductible (so works out even cheaper).

Let’s run through your options first, and then recap the essentials for Self Assessment tax returns if you’re keen to learn a bit more.

There’s 3 main options:

1. Online tax return service
2. Get help from HMRC directly
3. Use a traditional accountant

Our preferred option is the first option, to simply let the experts handle things with an online service, so let's run through that first.

1. Online tax return service

This is quite a modern way of doing a tax return, you get the best of both worlds – the experts doing it for you (and potentially saving you some tax money), while managing a few things online yourself. You also get full transparency over your tax return figures so you know what’s going on. They’ll even submit it to HMRC on your behalf too.

And because it’s online, it’s typically much cheaper than a traditional accountant, it can be much quicker, more transparent, and easier to manage (but traditional accountants can be great too).

Our top pick for this is TaxScouts¹, it’s very low cost, coming in at £149 for everything (which includes a discount we’ve bagged for you, otherwise it’s £169). Plus the cost is typically a business expense, so you get tax off it too.

‍Nuts About Money tip: here’s our TaxScouts review to learn more about them.

By the way, they are fully qualified accountants (based in the UK), and you can get expert advice if you’d like too. They also cover most types of people, from self-employed, construction workers, all the way to landlords and crypto investors.

With online tax return services, first you need to set up an account, which can be done quickly, online, and where you simply fill out details about yourself and how you made money. After that, you’ll get paired with an accountant who specialises in tax returns.

They’ll prepare everything for you, putting together your tax return, working out how much tax you’ll pay, and if they notice any expenses that qualify as business expenses you might even end up saving a bit of cash even after their fee. Did you know things like part of your energy bill can be a business expense if you work from home?

The accountant is also there if you have any questions, and you can message online, so you don’t have to pick up that scary phone (and no waiting on hold) unless you want to.

Once that’s sorted, which takes around a day or two, all you need to do is review and confirm it, and then it’s sent off to HMRC directly. That’s it, job done. Overall it takes just a few days, and then you can forget about it until next year.

Nuts About Money tip: don’t hang around getting your tax return sorted, if it’s a busy period such as the end of January, it might take longer.

2. Get help from HMRC directly

Now, if you’re an optimistic person, you’ll be thinking HMRC are there to help you get things right. That’s not really the case. They expect you to be able to do everything yourself, that’s working out how much tax you need to pay, completing your whole Self Assessment tax return yourself, and understanding what it all means.

However, having said that, there are options to ask questions. But, don’t expect a quick answer, or any advice relating to your own circumstances – they are not allowed to give you financial or tax advice. You can ask questions about the process and other related questions, but nothing about your finances.

You can call them over the phone on 0300 200 3310, from Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm – but be warned, the wait on hold is usually even longer than calling your energy or water company (and that’s longgg).

You can also get help online, via a live chat service, called a ‘digital assistant’. It’s a robot virtual assistant initially, who will try and point you in the right direction, and ultimately if you do need to speak to someone, they are there, but again, don’t expect quick responses.

There’s also online resources, which include YouTube videos to run through how to use the HMRC system to fill out your own tax return.

MoneyHelper (a government service) also provides a free guide to the basics of a Self Assessment tax return. 

3. Use a traditional accountant

Finally, the old school route, used by many for decades. You could get a traditional accountant to handle things for you. We call these traditional accountants as they’re not typically online services, you would find an accountant on your local high street, or typically based in an office, and you can speak to them in-person, over the phone or via email.

You can find an accountant near you with Unbiased¹. They’re typically all highly rated.

With a traditional accountant, they’ll take care of everything for you, and try to save you money where they can. So you don’t need to do much, just send them over things like your sales and invoices, and things like receipts.

Expect a turnaround time of a few weeks, but can be shorter or longer depending on the workload of your accountant, and typically they would work with people for many years, rather than a one-off tax return job – and they might do the all the accounting for your business, rather than just your personal tax return.

Cost wise, expect around £500, but this can vary a lot depending on how easy or complicated your tax return is, and which accountant you choose.

Deadline to file your tax return

The deadline to file your tax return is the 31st January every year, and covers the previous tax year from April 6th to April 5th the following year. So basically January is the last point where you can file your tax return for the tax year ending in the previous April. You get around 10 months to complete it (April to January). 

Nuts About Money tip: don’t go past the deadline to file, or you may get fined.

Also, don’t forget to register for Self Assessment first if you have never done it before (do this as soon as you can if you haven’t), which you can do on the government website.

You can actually file your Self Assessment tax return at any point after the tax year ends, so April 6th onwards each year – and can be a very good idea to do it early, providing you are organised with all your income and expenses.

Bear in mind, it takes at least a few days to file a tax return, unless you are doing it yourself and have everything prepared, so don’t leave it to the last minute. If you’re reading this now and it’s January, get it sorted right now!

What is a Self Assessment tax return?

Not quite sure what a Self Assessment tax return actually is, or if you need to do one? Let’s run through it briefly.

A Self Assessment tax return is where you are telling HMRC how much you owe them in tax each year, and relates to money you have made yourself, which can be from your job, a business, or money you’ve made from things like investing.

Note: if you run a business under a limited company, this isn’t the same thing, that’s a company tax return. This is just for businesses run under your own name (as a sole trader). However, you will still need to file a Self Assessment tax return to tell HMRC how much you’ve paid yourself from any profits from your limited company.

Every self-employed person needs to complete a Self Assessment, but also lots of employees, and anyone who has made money outside of their job also has to complete one. Let’s run through the most common reasons…

Who files a tax return

You’ll likely need to file a Self Assessment tax return if you:

• Are self-employed as a sole trader (and earned over £1,000 in sales)
• Are self-employed under a limited company and pay yourself dividends (profits)
• Are a partner in a business partnership
• Earn money from being a landlord and renting out your property
• Make lots of tips and commission
• Earn money from savings and investments
• Earn money from outside the country
• Earned over £150,000 in the last tax year from your job (or any income)
• Made money from an investment or property, or anything that rose in value and you sold it, making a profit
• Need to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge, where you earn over £60,000 (individually) but your household claimed Child Benefit
• Want to claim back tax relief on your personal pension

There might be some other instances too. Essentially, if you don’t have a regular 9-5 job that pays a salary (under £150,000) and don’t make any money outside of it, you probably don’t need to file one, if you do, you might do, as you’ll have made money without paying tax on it. You can check using the Self Assessment checker (government service).

If you fall into this list, you’ll need to sign up to register for Self Assessment, even if you are going to use an online service or an accountant. And this should be done before 5th October following the end of the tax year (5th April) where you’ve made money. You can register on the government website.

Nuts About Money tip: if you want an estimate of how much you’ll pay for future years, try our take-home pay calculator.

Let’s recap

“Tax doesn’t have to be taxing.” If you get that quote, you might be quite old (it was on a TV advert years ago). Anyway, it’s kind of true these days, now things have come down a lot in price, and the technology is actually there to do things easily online.

A Self Assessment tax return can be completed easily online, and you don’t really need to know much about tax or accounting (although it helps of course).

There’s three main ways of completing your tax return. You can do it yourself, if you’re confident and know what you’re doing, you can use a traditional accountant, or you can use an online service (that still uses qualified accountants).

Our recommendation for most people is to use an online service – they’re great value (around £149), with everything taken care of, and they might be able to save you some cash that you weren't aware of too. Plus you get the reassurance that a qualified expert is handling things for you.

Even if you are confident doing your tax return yourself, it could save you quite a bit of time.

Not sure what one to use? We think TaxScouts¹ is really great and worth checking out (don’t forget our discount, a massive 12% off, just click the link to get it). They’re fully qualified, fast, and great value.

Or, you could use a traditional accountant. They should be able to reduce your tax bill too (hopefully), and handle everything for you. You’ll likely pay a bit more, around £500, and you’ll typically need to find one local to you (use Unbiased¹ to find approved ones).

And that’s it. Simply get yourself set up, sort it, and don’t worry about it again for another year. Just don’t leave it too late!