5th April – a date in 1965 where we celebrated Lava Lamp Day but sadly now we only associate it with the end of another tax year.
“But I have only just recovered from January” I hear you cry! Those sleepless nights of fighting through boxes of receipts and excel spreadsheets to make the deadline. “I’ve got another 8 months to go before I relive that nightmare!”
So why not make a change – do it differently this year. Now is the time to get organised!
To get you started here is a Tax Return Fitness Programme to get you on track
- Type up a checklist of the paperwork you need as evidence. The likely 4 categories are:
- Invoices you have raised
- Receipts
- Other income sources – P60 or dividend statements
- Interest from Savings Accounts, Stocks etc
- Stick it on the inside lid of a box file
- As each piece of paper comes in, scan it, tick it off the list and put it in the box. Once your list is ticked then that part is complete.
- Get a lever arch file and divide it into the 12 months
- File your invoices and receipts into the relevant month
- Download your bank statements for each month into an csv file which you can then save as an excel spreadsheet
- Check you have the relevant invoices and receipts filed against each taxable entry
If you do this over the next 12 weeks by July you should be ready to complete your tax return or surprise your accountant!
And for the future – the three things that will make your tax year a doddle:
- Get a dedicated business bank account – it will save you hours of time
- Have a Tax MOT with an accountant to make sure you are claiming all that you can
- Move to a cloud accountancy package. I love Xero. It is not the cheapest but is established, easy to set up and effective but there are many to choose from.
So now I can go back to remembering Lava Lamps – Happy days!
