Personal tax

Tax returns and planning for individuals

If you are self-employed or earn more than £100,000 per year, you must submit a tax return to HMRC. Depending on the complexity of your personal financial affairs, that can be quite a challenge – especially when you take into account strict deadlines and fierce penalties.

At the same time, paying tax stings, especially when you have that nagging feeling you might be paying more than is strictly necessary. Tick the wrong box, misunderstand the rules or make the wrong decision and you could end up stumbling over important thresholds, or miss out on various reliefs and allowances.

Income tax self-assessment returns

The deadline for personal income tax returns is midnight on 31 January each year. Each year, thousands of taxpayers miss that deadline, often because fear of the forms has caused them to put it off, or because it was more complex than they expected.

Our team of tax return experts can handle everything on your behalf, taking your records, running the calculations and putting together an accurate return.

They’ll also ask all the right questions, actively pushing to make sure you claim all the reliefs to which you’re entitled.

MTD for ITSA

From April 2023, self-employed businesses and landlords with business turnover above £10,000 must comply with Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax self-assessment (ITSA). In practice, that means recording and reporting digitally by getting set up with cloud accounting software.

We can help you find the right cloud package for your needs, handle setup and show you how to use it to save yourself time and stress.

Personal tax advice

Self-employed and wealthy individuals often have complex financial arrangements with income from business, property and investments. Proper planning can untangle all of this and identify strategies for keeping the overall amount of tax you pay under control.

For example, we can advise on the best way to withdraw income from your business with the right balance of salary, dividends and pension payments. We’ll offer guidance on maximising the use of personal tax allowances between you and your spouse or partner. And suggest ways to keep any capital gains tax (CGT) bills to a bare minimum.

When it comes to planning for later in life, and even beyond, we’ll also suggest ways to ensure your assets pay for a comfortable retirement and aren’t swallowed up by inheritance tax after you’ve gone.

Our personal tax service covers…

• Self-assessment returns
• Property tax including apital gains
• Inheritance tax and estates
• Personal tax planning