As a director of a limited company, you may have to carry out a self-assessment tax return. This is to tell HMRC how much money you’ve earned in a year and any other financial information. HMRC collect this information to work out how much tax and National Insurance you need to pay. 

 

When to file a self-assessment 

 

Your self-assessment must be filed by 31st January after a tax year has finished. So, your self-assessment tax return for last year needs to be filed by 31st January 2022.

 

Penalties for not filing your self-assessment in time

 

HMRC is waiving late filing and payment penalties until February 28th 2022, however, they do encourage taxpayers to try to stick to the original deadline of 31st January 2022. 

 

If you’re late filing your self-assessment by up to 3 months, you’ll face a fine of £100 and even more, if it’s any later than that. If you’re late paying what you owe, HMRC will charge you interest on what you owe, starting from the payment deadline date. 

 

HMRC might take into consideration exceptional circumstances that could affect the filing or payment of your self-assessment tax, however, this is dealt with depending on the individual case. 

 

How to file your self-assessment tax return?

 

You can file your self-assessment using Government Gateway or GOV.UK Verify. Alternatively, you can hire an accountant to file this for you to save time and make sure it’s filed correctly before the deadline. You’ll also need your P60 form from your PAYE system or get your accountant to prepare it for you.

 

How to pay your self-assessment

 

Once you’ve filed your self-assessment tax return, HMRC will calculate how much tax you owe them. Once they have worked out how much you owe, they will send you your tax bill which you can pay online via the Governments website by debit card. Credit cards are not accepted. 

 

If you owe less than £3,000 and pay tax via PAYE, HMRC will offer you the choice to pay your tax bill through your tax code which will automatically spread the payments out over the coming year.

 

Help is at hand

 

If you have any questions or need someone to file your self-assessment tax return for you, our accounting partner ATN Partnership are experts on all things accounting and tax. They will answer any questions you might have and can even file your self-assessment for you!

 

If you would like to speak to an accountant from ATN Partnership, all you have to do is click here and complete the form and they will be in touch.