The long and winding road… leading to tax returns

He who hesitates, may lose out… get your Tax Return in early!

If you, like many others, have to complete a tax return, do you get it done and out of the way once 5th April swings around, or does it end up on that never ending “to do list” and then sorted out in a mad panic as 31st January looms? I agree, getting all of your information together to send to your accountant (if you use one) is a right bore and on neither “the important” nor “urgent” lists, so we procrastinate and then a last minute flurry hopefully gets it over the line…

But as life slowly returns to normal or “new normal”, kids go back to school (noticed how quiet it is at home now?), holiday season slowly draws to an end (summer social events dwindling?), we often start planning for the next term in our lives, and perhaps along with new pencils, pens and sharpeners, we make a new to-do list.

Can I urge you to put YOUR TAX RETURN on that list?

Here are 5 Reasons why this is important:

1. More haste, less speed – doing things at the last minute may mean you miss something vital…
2. Better planning – you know what you need to pay or what is due back sooner so you can plan around this…
3. We have more time – completing a return early allows us to ask all the relevant questions in good time…
4. Penalties – if the return is late for whatever reason, there is a £100 penalty and a risk of much higher charges to follow…
5. Our fees – if we have to re-work your return due to missing information there could be further costs created by the additional work this generates…

The role of our team of dedicated tax specialists is to help you minimise your tax bill and maximise any savings. The problems we frequently see with people not prioritising doing all of this on time are:

• Raised stress levels
• Doubts over what to pay
• Lack of clarity in what is needed
• Time spent chasing
• Uncertainty on next steps with little time to spare

So can I urge you, put your Tax Return on your September to-do list. If we already deal with your return and you’re not sure what we need from you, get in touch and we can run through things. If we don’t, but you (or someone you know) would like us to help, then let us know and I’ll be more than happy to explain how we can assist with all things tax.

Please take action, don’t delay and call me or your usual member of the team on 0131 625 5151.

Your Tax Director at Haines Watts

Ian