Find The Documents To Complete Tax Return

About Tax Return

Many United Kingdom citizens might feel jammed when trying to work towards defining the parameters or preparing a checklist to fill their tax return. For a layman, it is challenging to be acquainted with the documentation procedures and know where to start from, when he/she is unacquainted with the compulsory documents, or where precisely to trace them. Below mentioned is a comprehensive information of the necessary documents that a United Kingdom citizen is likely to need, in order to complete his/her self-assessment online quickly, before the tax deadline

Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) Number

For submitting a self-assessment tax return, each United Kingdom citizen is provided with a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number. A UTR number is a 10-digit number totally exclusive to each United Kingdom taxpayer, and is received from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) while registering for self-assessment. Depending on the method opted by an individual, he/she may have been issued a Unique Taxpayer Reference via post, online or phone. In case an individual didn’t preserve it or doesn’t remember the UTR number, then the same can be found on the former tax returns or other official papers received from HMRC. If an individual is unable to locate any of the documents, he/she can request for the UTR number by calling the self-assessment help desk, after providing the verification details. UTR number assists the HMRC to process tax returns at a more well-organised, real and correct rate, making certain that every individual only pays for what he/she owes and gets back any amount that they might be eligible for

Contacting Self-Assessment Help Desk for Tax Return Assistance

Phone: United Kingdom citizens can contact HMRC for guidance on self-assessment. While contacting the self-assessment help desk, an individual must keep the National Insurance number and UTR number handy.

Contact details are as follows:

1. Telephone number: 0300 200 3310
2. Text-phone number: 0300 200 3319
3. Outside United Kingdom: +44 161 931 9070

The helpdesk can be contacted in the below mentioned timeslots:

• From Monday to Friday contact between 8am and 8pm
• On a Saturday contact between 8am and 4pm
• On a Sunday contact between 9am and 5pm

Post: United Kingdom citizens can write to HMRC regarding any query related to self-assessment. An individual is not required to encompass city name, street name or PO Box when writing the address. The postal address of HMRC is: Self-assessment
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AS
United Kingdom

Online: United Kingdom citizens can complete self-assessment online via GOV.UK Verify if he/she has relevant details handy to file a return. In case an individual forgets his/her activation code/password/user id, then they can generate a new one – this will take around 10 minutes to authenticate the identity

Additionally, for contacting the self-assessment helpdesk, an individual can use Twitter (begin the tweet with @HMRCcustomers) to get wide-ranging assistance from HMRC. Furthermore, through a webchat, advice-givers can only chat to an individual about self-assessment or pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) income tax. They won’t be able to handover the chat to a different webchat team

Profit or Loss accounts

HMRC needs information about the earnings of an individual – even though an individual has experienced a loss. Computing the earnings will assist an individual to arrive at the final figure, and information to collate the data can be found in the bank statements. An out-and-out company bank account will make this data gathering stress-free, as it won’t get mixed up with any extra money paid or given

Record of business expenses

A United Kingdom taxpayer might be required to provide precise data about his/her expenditures. If an individual spent a noteworthy amount on permissible expenses, then such expenses can be claimed to decrease the tax obligation. On the other hand, if the over-all expenses are less than £1,000, then an individual can take benefit of the trading allowance as it doesn’t need an individual to maintain records. If the amount is greater than this threshold, then an individual can provide the pertinent receipts in a digital set-up

Employment details for Tax Return Filing

Credentials relating to employment may also be essential if an individual was employed for any duration during a given tax year – information pertaining to amount of tax paid and how much an individual earned must be provided. This data can be obtained from a P60 (end of year certificate) or P45 Part 1A (details of employee leaving work). In case an individual received any reimbursements from former employers, he/she might be required to fetch information from his/her P11D (benefits-in-kind)

Other documents for filing Tax Return

Along with information pertaining to employment, an individual might have to keep other information updated as well. For instance, an individual can track his/her National Insurance number on their pay slip, pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) coding notification, P60, P45, or any other communication from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Additional government records may be essential too, such as communications around pension or child benefit. If an individual receives any interest from a building society or a United Kingdom bank, then he/she might need to search for communication from them to fill-in the appropriate field in a tax return.

Other details include the following:

• Any earnings from out of the country. Please point to whether any native taxes have been subtracted
• Commissions, gains on submission of life insurance plans, allowance or maintenance
• Dividend and interest tax receipts or securities broker twelve-monthly tax report, taking account of number of shares and particulars of any recent gains or amendments
• Earnings from insurance bond and other pension arrangements
• Investment/interest from account, for instance building societies, banks, stockbroker, National Savings Bank, together with closed accounts with a note of the interest at date of closing and particulars of any new accounts opened containing the account number, date opened, and branch
• Income from annuities or allowances
• Income from business or trade or copy of accounts if previously prepared
• Property earnings, e.g. equipped or without any furniture lettings, comprising particulars of all expenditures and dates of possession

Also See: Pros and Cons of a Limited Company and Sole Trader

About the author

Sumit Agarwal
Sumit Agarwal (ACMA ACA India), the Managing partner of dns accountants is a highly respected accountant with expertise in helping owner-managed businesses.