I started in February 2013 selling musical instruments online and privately as an Sole trader , business could be better but it is nice to be your own boss .
The issue is that it is coming up to January and I am getting stressed about my tax return as I have never done it before
My original intention was to submit my own paperwork to the HRMC but I have decided against it as running the business is hard enough and with no experience I am going to struggle.
Have I left it too late to get an accountant ? as I have no idea on when or how to go about filling in the tax return and I am worried that I will fined by the HRMC .
I did inform the HRMC when I started and have been paying my NI contributions.
I have done my best to keep records of my sales , purchases , expenses and fuel costs if folders etc .
90% of my sales is done on ebay so I will be able to download any information I need.
Anyway thanks for taking the time to read my post and any help would be much appreciated .
Shahpur ( tonewoodmusic)
Replies (22)
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i broadly agree
where an accountant is likely to help most is in the choice of your year end as the 'correct' year end can considerably reduce your tax now and possibly in the future ; however you may not need an accountant now for 2012 13 as any figures you submit can be amended at any time in the next 12 months. so for this year if pressed enter your PAYE detail and add estimated detail for self employed income , this can all be changed later when you all havw more time , tho you should try and get the figures as close as poss.
Yes agreed
Yes don't panic, we are receiving similar emails from client referrals at this time of year and there is always a solution I would advise talking to local contacts such as banks, business contacts and see who they can recommend and then speak to a few and see how you get on!
Good luck
Excel?
Have you considered the advantages of online bookkeeping? Maybe you should ask the accountants you see what they would recommend?
It depends what you mean
Without knowing what you mean to say it would be impossible to comment.
Closing stock
You deduct closing stock from your purchases to arrive at cost of goods sold.
Why don't you ask your accountant about this? It seems strange that you wait until he "goes away" and then you get interested.
The accountant
will be able to sort it out.
I don't think the fees will be a lot if you have a separate business bank account and have reconciled the bank.
No
Take off closing stock (not add as above) to arrive at direct costs.
You would struggle to make a trading loss of £14k on £6k sales!
You said you were going to get an accountant
They will help you sort out what is allowable, and what isn't. They will also work out the trading, and taxable, profits.
The accountant won't accept your calculations. They will want to do the calc's themselves, and if they have the time they will explain their adjustments to you.
Direct costs are out by £1 - most likely rounding
My guess is he's not going to use an accountant.
It doesn't make sense
You don't do anything from 06/04/13 until after Christmas and then you try to contact accountants between Christmas and the New Year. Now you are panicking when there is still a month to go.
I had some water leaking during the recent storms. What did I do? Panic? No, I knew it wouldn't be easy to find somebody between Christmas and the New Year so I made sure no damage was done and then I will look for somebody to deal with it in January.
Another time waster
Not been on this site long but I am driven mad by these type of questions.
The people do not seem to appreciate the great generosity of the people who take the trouble to answer the questions.Many of the contributors are highly qualified professionals who give freely of their skills and professional knowledge to help others starting up or with temporary mind blanks.
Reading through, even from Christmas I can see £1000's of free advice provided.
On this particular thread people have given excellent advice and have been rewarded by a S....
spreadsheet stated to have been purchased off ebay and then contributors are expected to give further advice.
Profit
Assuming the total expenses (£4269) include the costs (£3611) deducted to get to the gross profit -
enter £6418 in Box 8 and £4269 in Box19 leaving a profit of £2149. These are the only boxes which require entries.
Now go and find an accountant who for a reasonable fee can give you further advice regarding the correct treatment of any fixed assets together with other useful advice such as mileage allowances as oppose to fuel costs.
My fee note is in the post.