As a self-employed taxi or private hire driver you’ll need to submit what is known as a Self-Assessment tax return to HMRC. This is an annual declaration of your income and expenses and is used to calculate what taxes you owe.
Thursday 5th April was the final day of the 2017/18 tax year and your tax return for this year must be filed before 31 January 2019.
Use the 6 April, and new tax year, as an opportunity to change the way you record your income and expenses. Make the shift over to digital record keeping as soon as possible to start calculating tax as you go.
Don’t forget to claim your car running costs and scan your receipts for things like:
To find out how to get 50% off your tax submission or 25% off a SimpleBooks subscription with SimpleTax, tap on the offers tab in the FarePilot app.
If you owed more than £1,000 in tax for 2017/18 then you may have to make an advanced payment (Payment on Account) towards your 2018/19 tax bill. This will be due Tuesday 31st July 2018.
HMRC will have sent you a payment reminder but if you are unsure call them on 0300 200 3300 as you will be charged interest on any late payments.
Don’t forget to claim your Business expenses and scan your receipts using SimpleTax for things like:
If you became self-employed in the year ended 5 April 2018 and have not advised HMRC you must do so before Friday 5 October 2018.
Missing this deadline could mean you incur penalties. These can be up to 30% of the amount of tax that you owe, so it pays to be prepared.
Register online on the GOV.UK website to receive your 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (keep this safe, you’ll need it when you submit your tax returns). The process can take up to 10 working days to complete – you’ll receive a letter with a code that is required for activation.
If you have income from PAYE and a tax bill of less than £3,000 and want this to be collected by wage deductions over 12 months from April 2019, you must submit your paper tax return by 31 October 2018. This is subject to you having enough earnings to deduct the tax due.
Self-Assessment online tax return deadline and first Payment on Account for the 2018/19 tax year
This is the biggest date of the whole year for the self-employed.
Self Assessment submissions are due by midnight on 31st January.
Miss it, and you could end up being forced to pay a considerable penalty. You’ll also need to pay any taxes due for 2017/18 along with any payment on account for the 2018/19 tax year.
Make sure you file your return online well in advance 31st January 2019 using SimpleTax so there are no nasty surprises.
Don’t forget to claim your finance expenses and scan your receipts for things like:
To find out how to get 50% off your tax submission or 25% off a SimpleBooks subscription with SimpleTax, tap on the offers tab in the FarePilot app.
FarePilot Limited is an Appointed Representative of Automotive Compliance Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA No 497010). Automotive Compliance Ltd’s permissions as a Principal Firm allows FarePilot Limited to act as a credit broker, not as a lender, for the introduction to a limited number of finance providers and to act as an agent on behalf of the insurer for insurance distribution activities only.