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Tax Returned
Posted: Wed 16 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Work-related |3 Comments »I’ve finally completed my Tax Return for 2006/7, and it’s gone off in the post today. (Yes, I sent it special delivery, so I know it’s there by this time tomorrow, well in time for the 31st Jan deadline)
This tax return wasn’t too bad, because it was only the short form one. I’m still not sure why I ended up with that one – well, I’m not sure why I ended up with one at all, because I’d been PAYE throughout that tax year – but hey ho, the ways of the taxman are not ours to question.
But at least this means this one has been done, and it’s all out of my hair for another nine months or so. Happy Day.
3 Comments on “Tax Returned”
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Why didn’t you do it online? Saves calculating your own tax, which you have to if you leave it to this time in the year.
Although… they don’t make it easy, with all the crazy numbers, passwords and goodness knows what else they require.
They now only send shortform ones unless you have income from property or unusual things.
Oh, and, you get one automatically if you have income from more than one source, any income that may not be taxed at source, or pay higher rate tax. Or if they have any suspicions. And sometimes they just feel like annoying people.
[Edited by Lyle : I’ve merged two comments into one. That’s the only editing.]
I do it in hard copy format primarily because of the hassles I’ve had with HMCE over the last six years – frankly, if I don’t deliver the document along with a solid proof of receipt, I’m now convinced they’ll lose it. They did that with three years of full-on Self Assessment forms, and then fined me because they’d lost the on-line completed form.
So with HMCE I tend to go back to mid-20th Century, and use a) hard-copy and b) post. Once I’ve got it signed for, I print the tracking data off the Royal Mail website, staple it to the proof-of-sending, and they can’t say “Oh, we didn’t receive it”.
In my experience, with HMCE it pays to assume that a) they’re incompetent, b) they’re cretins, and c) they’re incompetent. Once you assume the complete lowest common denominator with them, and work to that level, you can’t go too far wrong.
As it is, on this short-form one they’ve said they sent it because I claimed expenses. The fact that I claimed expenses through the umbrella company, and they’ve got all the receipts? Well, that’s not their problem. Unfortunately, nor is it the umbrella company’s. Which is a cunt, but there we go.
How they can say they’ve lost an online version you completed amazes me, because you get a submission number, and an emailed receipt.
Mind you, I don’t trust them either – I also print every page as I go and then download the finished version to my hard drive.
I think it’s time they started giving people who file online a bit discount as it saves them paper, and lots of time. Oh no, silly me, that would leave lots of less-than-civil-servants without jobs…