The government plans to bring tax into the 21st century with their Making Tax Digital scheme which aims to make the administration of tax easier and more efficient. The first phase was Making Tax Digital for VAT and all VAT registered businesses are now required to keep digital records and submit their VAT returns digitally. […]
Simplified Expenses
Running a Vehicle Instead of claiming the actual costs of the vehicle – which would be the purchase price, insurance, repairs, road tax, etc – you can instead claim a flat rate based on your business mileage. Once you start to use flat rates for a vehicle you must continue to do so for the […]
Trading Allowance
Self employed persons should be aware that there is a trading allowance of £1,000 available which is relevant to bookkeeping in that it may affect the records you need to keep (and whether or not you need to file a tax return – see HMRC). If your total trading income is £1,000 or less then […]
Keeping Records
If you are self employed you are legally required to keep records in order to file an accurate tax return. Failure to do so could result in a fine of £3,000. Business Income Bank statements, receipts, invoices and any other documents relevant to trading income should be kept. If you are registered for any other […]
Accounting Date
When starting out one of the decisions you will need to make is which date to use for your accounting date or year end. It is easiest if your accounting year follows the tax year which runs 6th April to 5th April – your accounting date / year end is therefore 5th April. Your accounting […]