Tax Returns !!!!

[White Knight]

Anyone else starting to worry about getting the old tax return in in time ?
I'm not thick but I find the damn thing hard going. It's like asking an accountant to go and fly a 757. I doubt they'd do a very good job, but I'm supposed to pretend to be an accountant and fill in the form properly on pain of being fined, or worse still being prosecuted.

Anyone else think that the whole thing is a load of dog's bollox ??

[Jetdriver]

Agree it does tend to get forgotten about and left in the drawer.

Unless your financial affairs are particularly complicated, you should be able to fill the form in with the information contained on the P60 you should have been given in April, plus any declared interest on savings ( except ISA's etc) and whatever allowable expenses you want to claim. Most of the form can be completed with a diagonal line through all the non relevant sections.

If you had submitted the form prior to 30th September the Inland Revenue would have done the calculation for you, however the onus is now on you to either do it yourself (there is free software available to help) or pay an accountant to do it for you. Best just to take a deep breath and get it done (quickly because the deadline is the 31st of January.)

As for asking an Inland Revenue Collector to fly a 757 ( I know you said an accountant) well I was and I do !

Good luck !

[exeng]

Hi Jetdriver (Tax Inspector!),

Bet you enjoy your present job better than the last. Any good tips on tax avoidance for us aviators?


Regards
Exeng

[SevenFiftySeven]

White Knight
Yeah, you're completely right - a complete waste of time and effort for all concerned. It's like the tax office made it as difficult as possible.

Spare a thought for me though - every year I have to do a UK AND a USA tax return!

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!

[This message has been edited by SevenFiftySeven (edited 22 January 2001).]

[Basil]

The UK IR provide free CD ROM software to complete a simple tax return.
Unfortunately it doesn't cover all the boxes, e.g. no provision for CGT (indexation & taper relief etc)
Can anyone recommend a good, affordable package with all the facilities?

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

I have used Which?TaxCalc for several years and found it to be accurate and stress-free, just like it says. It covers the Core Return, Employment, Self Employment, Land and Property, Trusts, Capital Gains, Share Schemes, Non-Residence, Foreign Income, Partnership Income, R40. TaxCalc 2000 costs £24.99 and is on sale at the usual PC software outlets or direct from Which? on 0800 920 140 quoting TRG00, your name, address and credit card number with expiry date.
As of the weekend before last, a certain tax-office in Scotland was still waiting for 70% of the returns to come in! If that's indicative of the rest of the country, then there's a lot of panicking people out there!

[White Knight]

Glad it's not just me then.
Still working on it today, now bored so decided to do some pruning instead.
I got the Inland Rev CD ROM last year but I've got rental income now so it's no good for that.
And for the chap who was a bean counter and now flies Boeings well done for seeing the light and giving up working for a living....

[foghorn]

I second G-ALHI, Which Taxcalc is well worth thirty quid. I comes with full instructions, handles just about all taxation scenarios, and will print out you return or your R40 reclaim form for you (or even e-file if you're that brave :))

Last year I had income from salary (two employers), share dividends, capital gains, property income, bank interest and refunded pension contributions. There was a box for all of them, and at the end it printed out the return forms and spat out the magic 'on account' figures to be paid in January and July .

Couldn't have been easier. Certainly not worth paying a tax advisor for.

[Basil]

Thanks for the advice - I'll give Which? a go for my 01-02 return and save myself about four hundred quid :)
BTW, just set up NTL as my ISP via a BT line. The initial setup was straightforward and clearly works OK.