per above: "UK-resident non-domiciles who continue to own and let a property in their home country will frequently find that this income is not caught by the new UK rules. If that is the only overseas source of income, they may be able to thumb their noses at the new UK rules". Is this really the case?
I have a client who is Italian domiciled, who has just mentioned that her parents have bought a couple of flats (in 2008!) in her name in Italy, and all the rental income stays in Italy. I told her of my belief that they should be on her UK tax returns and she checked with her Italian account, who said that she didn't need to.
Well, I do object! SA100s are the bulk of my work. Nearly all my clients are sole traders, partnerships or personal tax clients, and since the arrival to self-assessment, I have ensured that almost all of them have 31 March year ends. I completed 166 2005 tax returns in the 9 month period May 2005 - January 2006 and worked at full capacity during the whole of this time. I rarely get any complete information for a client before May, and have very few clients that are VAT registered, consequently most clients only submit their tax documents to me in one piece. Even changing the self-employed year end will not affect the need for rental, PAYE and all other income to be gathered for the 5 April year end
I therefore have a very light time in February, March & April but am obviously needed to be available for possible Revenue enquiries. As a sole practitioner, I have a very personal relationship with all my clients and give them regular memory-jogging correspondence and telephone calls to get their tax information to me. Some people will always want to produce this quickly, but many will always drag their heels until the last moment, whenever that may be. Unfortunately this seems to be human nature.
I already submit all the returns electronically where the Government gateway will allow, but some do get rejected, sometimes unexpectedly, and have to be submitted by post, so iIf I were to be certain to save any of my clients a late filing fine, I would then need to submit all returns within the 5 month period of May to September. This is completely unworkable as I would not have the time to produce so many and I would then have 7 months with very little work.
Even with the change to filing by 30 November: I could hope that no FBI returns were rejected, and maybe be willing to be liable for the late penalty myself if rejected in October or November. This would give me a 7 month window of opportunity for completing all of them and my practice would still be severely affected. I work long hours, so consider working extra time would be potentially detrimental to the quality of my work, so do not see this as an option. Nor would I be prepared to take on a temporary assistant as I would lose the personal connection and certainty of accuracy. I would have to reduce my client base to make this workable, reducing my income, and I would also have very little earning potential in my chosen profession for the other 5 months of the year.
I think that if there is a strong need to get tax returns in earlier, surely an effective way to ensure taxpayers spend less time before submitting would have been to impose the shorter period at the same time as staggering the dates - maybe half of the taxpayers submitting by 31 January and the other half by 31 July, or even quarterly. I am sure that this would also relieve pressure on the Inland Revenue staff who must also be affected.
Surely I'm not the only practitioner to be affected in this way.
My answers
is this still relevant?
per above: "UK-resident non-domiciles who continue to own and let a property in their home country will frequently find that this income is not caught by the new UK rules. If that is the only overseas source of income, they may be able to thumb their noses at the new UK rules". Is this really the case?
I have a client who is Italian domiciled, who has just mentioned that her parents have bought a couple of flats (in 2008!) in her name in Italy, and all the rental income stays in Italy. I told her of my belief that they should be on her UK tax returns and she checked with her Italian account, who said that she didn't need to.
This is her only source of foreign income.
x
deleted
previous years
What penalties will apply to unsubmitted 2010 returns?
Well, I do object!
SA100s are the bulk of my work. Nearly all my clients are sole traders, partnerships or personal tax clients, and since the arrival to self-assessment, I have ensured that almost all of them have 31 March year ends. I completed 166 2005 tax returns in the 9 month period May 2005 - January 2006 and worked at full capacity during the whole of this time. I rarely get any complete information for a client before May, and have very few clients that are VAT registered, consequently most clients only submit their tax documents to me in one piece. Even changing the self-employed year end will not affect the need for rental, PAYE and all other income to be gathered for the 5 April year end
I therefore have a very light time in February, March & April but am obviously needed to be available for possible Revenue enquiries. As a sole practitioner, I have a very personal relationship with all my clients and give them regular memory-jogging correspondence and telephone calls to get their tax information to me. Some people will always want to produce this quickly, but many will always drag their heels until the last moment, whenever that may be. Unfortunately this seems to be human nature.
I already submit all the returns electronically where the Government gateway will allow, but some do get rejected, sometimes unexpectedly, and have to be submitted by post, so iIf I were to be certain to save any of my clients a late filing fine, I would then need to submit all returns within the 5 month period of May to September. This is completely unworkable as I would not have the time to produce so many and I would then have 7 months with very little work.
Even with the change to filing by 30 November: I could hope that no FBI returns were rejected, and maybe be willing to be liable for the late penalty myself if rejected in October or November. This would give me a 7 month window of opportunity for completing all of them and my practice would still be severely affected. I work long hours, so consider working extra time would be potentially detrimental to the quality of my work, so do not see this as an option. Nor would I be prepared to take on a temporary assistant as I would lose the personal connection and certainty of accuracy. I would have to reduce my client base to make this workable, reducing my income, and I would also have very little earning potential in my chosen profession for the other 5 months of the year.
I think that if there is a strong need to get tax returns in earlier, surely an effective way to ensure taxpayers spend less time before submitting would have been to impose the shorter period at the same time as staggering the dates - maybe half of the taxpayers submitting by 31 January and the other half by 31 July, or even quarterly. I am sure that this would also relieve pressure on the Inland Revenue staff who must also be affected.
Surely I'm not the only practitioner to be affected in this way.