What Is a Self Assessment Tax Return?

SATRs are becoming increasingly complex even though HMRC may still insist that “tax isn’t taxing”.

Self Assessment Tax Return, or SATR, is a system used by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to collect Income Tax.

Wages, pensions and savings typically all have tax automatically deducted from them. Businesses and individuals having other income need to report it in a tax return.

If you are required to send in a tax return, you must complete the SATR following the end of the tax year it applies to.

Below are the most common items that tax payers may forget to include in their Self Assessment Tax Return.

Make sure that you include all your income for 2014/15 tax year, collect P60s and P45s within the year. If you are self-employed ensure that you fill in the self-employed section for each sole trader business or partnership pages if you are in a partnership.

A commonly forgotten section to complete is to tick the box if you still have an outstanding student loan. If you are solely a PAYE tax payer your student loan payments will have been collected via payroll, however, if you have other income you may need to make an additional repayment.

If you are the higher earner and earn over £50,000 and are still collecting child benefit, you may find that you have to return some of this via your tax return. Make sure you therefore tick the child benefit box.

Ensure that you collect a P11D from your employer if you have any benefits in kind, as these will need to be reported on your tax return, these could include, company cars, fuel payments, staff entertainment, medical insurance and personal telephone payments.

If you make a contribute to a personal pension and are a higher rate tax payer it is important to record your pension contributions correctly in your tax return, as although your pension provider will have organised the first 20% tax relief to add to your pension contributions, you will probably have not received the second 20% of tax relief.

Whenever you donate to a charity and tick the option for gift aid remember to keep a note of it. If you are a higher rate tax payer you will receive additional tax relief on these donations.

Even if you rental property is incurring a loss it is still important to include the details on your tax return. Any losses accrued will offset future rental profits earnt.

Remember to include any dividends received from shares that you own, you should receive a dividend voucher from the company that you own shares in so that you can check which year the dividends should be recorded in.

If you buy or sell an asset it is important to include details within your tax return. If you make a capital loss, this can be taken forward to offset against future capital gains.

If you receive any pension income make sure you include it in your tax return, this should also include state pension income. Pensioners usually receive P60s from their pension providers.

The items above aren’t the only items to remember for a Self Assessment Tax Return; however, these are the items that we see most often forgotten in tax returns. It is important to get professional tax advice for any complicated items.

If the idea of preparing your personal tax return for 2014/15 just gives you headache, just call us and we would be happy to help.

• HMRC: Self Assessment tax returns overview
• HMRC: SA100 Self Assessment forms