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I think I should be doing a tax return for the last tax year but I haven’t received a letter about it – what should I do?

I think I should be doing a tax return for the last tax year but I haven’t received a letter about it – what should I do?
Wednesday, December 23, 2015

I think I should be doing a tax return for the last tax year but I haven’t received a letter about it – what should I do?

First up, if you’re newly self-employed, and started during the last tax year but you haven’t told HMRC about it, you need to get onto their website as soon as possible and register as a self-employed person. You can’t file your tax return without a Unique Tax Reference (UTR), and if you don’t have one because you haven’t been self-employed before, this is the first step to getting yourself ready to file.

If you have told HMRC you’re self-employed but haven’t heard back, you need to call the Helpline and chase up your UTR. It may have already been issued and the letter didn’t get to you – in which case they can send out a duplicate. Again, you can’t file a return without this number. Don’t leave it too late – the post can take a couple of weeks to get out of the HMRC system.

If you already have a UTR, and haven’t received a letter to say you DON’T need to file a return, then the prudent answer is to file a return anyway. The reminder to file a tax return is just a courtesy from HMRC – Self –Assessment means that it is a self-administered scheme and it is your duty to ensure that you comply with filing a return when you ought to.

If you want to talk through if you ought to file a return then please give us a call – we’re always happy to answer your questions.

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