How To Fill In A Tax Form

Oh taxes! Depressing and confusing but necessary. Now if you are someone that is working for a company where the PAYE and tax thing (yes I call it the tax thing) is automatically deducted as part of your wages then you can't miss what you never had, and also don't have to deal with the following nonsense! However if like me you run your own business, or are freelance, then you fall into this category. A lot of people don't realise also that if you are making money from blogging, selling online, or any other form of income you should be paying tax on your earnings, therefore this does apply!

The adverts do not lie, so honestly better to do it sooner rather than later. I don't know who wrote these forms but to me they sound like a foreign language. For example it says 'date of commencement' which means start date, and date of cessation means the date you finish. Whoever wrote them seems to have swallowed a thesaurus. This is the only form I have ever seen in the history of forms that will ask for the situation of your domicile, rather than where you live. (Seriously!) 

The absolute easiest way is to fill in your form online and send it via the site. It is also useful as if you use it year by year it remembers your details and saves you unnecessary pain. Good packages to use are which and intuit both which are approved by the inland revenue. For more help go to inland revenue and to calculate how much tax you have to pay go to www.taxcalc.com. The first payment has to be paid by January 31st (ruining Christmas) and the second by 31st July (ruining Summer) 

I would love to give you a ton of advice on how to do it, but to be honest it is a mine field. What I would say is that BE AWARE that you have to pay it, even if you are a start up running a full time job - and then there is your VAT bill (totally different ball game) if you run your own business. I have to say though the above resources are REALLY useful, and my tip would be keep some money aside each month (more than you think it will be, better to be safe than sorry!)

But if you love your job like I do? and love working for yourself? then it's totally worth the hassle!