The 2024-25 tax year has come to a close, and early preparation is key to a stress-free tax season. Here’s your straightforward guide to getting everything in order to prepare for your 2024-25 self-assessment tax return:
Key Dates for your Diary
- 5th April 2025: End of Tax Year
- 31st July 2025: Payment on Account due (if this was required following your 2023-24 tax return)
- 5th October 2025: Self-assessment registration deadline
- 31st October 2025: Paper return filing deadline
- 31st January 2026: Online submission deadline and balancing payment due date
- 28th February 2026: Unpaid taxes at this date, incur a 5% surcharge
Essential Documents to Gather
If you’re employed:
- P60 from your employer(s)
- P45 if you changes jobs mid tax year
- P11D form – for any benefits in kind from your employer, such as private medical, gym or a company car
If you have or had investments (i.e. you own shares, cash, other capital assets)
- Bank statements or Annual summary for your bank interest received
- Dividend Vouchers
- Portfolio Statements (if you’ve invested into a portfolio)
- Details of any sales of assets in the year (ie. sale of shares), inc original cost and associated costs of sale and acquisition.
Receiving a Pension?
- Private Pension P60 or payslips
- State Pension – keep track of what you’ve received or keep hold of your HMRC letter confirming the amounts received
Own rental property?
- Statements from your lettings agents
- Mortgage interest statements for the year
- Details of rent received during the period
- Details of rental property expenses incurred
Self Employed or in a Partnership?
- Self-employment records – invoices, receipts, expenses, bank statements
- CIS deduction statements if you’re in the construction industry
- Mileage logs, if using a personal vehicle for business
Child Benefit – Charges
- If you’re the higher earner and earning in excess of £60k, you’ll need to report what you’ve received for child benefit during the period. If you’ve not kept track but know you’ve collected this for the whole year, you can use HMRC’s standard rates,
Digital Record Keeping Tips
- Utilise cloud accounting software such as Xero, if you’re self employed, in a partnership or have rental property
- Take photos of receipts or record them on an app
- Clearly label documents
- Organise your digital files – this is easier to do as you go along.
What About Tax Reliefs?
In addition to keeping hold of your receipts and invoices, there are a few other things to consider when it comes to tax reliefs:
- Charitable Donations – check through your bank or keep notes as you make them. It’s best practive to know the charity name, number, amount and whether the donation was gift aided.
- Pension Contributions – track through bank statments and statements from your pension provider
- SEIS/EIS – you should receive a certificate from HMRC (SEIS3) for each investments
When should you file your self-assessment tax return?
You don’t have to leave your tax return to the last minute to file! If you file early, then it doesn’t mean that you have to pay early, the payment due dates remain the same (31 Jan). At Brisan, we aim to complete all of our tax returns before the end of November so that are clients are well prepared for any liabilities.
If you make payments on account for your tax return, you may want to file before 31 July, because you could have the opportunity to reduce your payment on account if your tax owed is less than the payment on account, which is better for your cashflow.
For cases where a taxpayer is due a a tax refund, the sooner the return is filed, the sooner you can get the refund.
We recommend filing early so that you can get prepared for your tax liabilities, understand your cashflow and focus on the year ahead without worry.
Brisan has Your 2024-25 Self-assessment Tax Return Covered!
We take the stress out of your self-assessment tax return preparation. Our team is geared up to support you throughout the year, avoid deadline rushes and ensure compliance when it comes to preparing tax-returns.
Our diligent approach means everything gets reported and you pay the right amount of tax, optimising your position and keeping lines of communication open the whole time.
If you would like a personalised checklist or to discuss your self-assessment tax position, get in touch.
