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Personal: Income Tax, No VAT…

Hector - the old Inland Revenue mascotArrghhh! The other day I received my first “Self Assessment Tax Return” which means I’ve got to inform the tax office of all my income last tax year and let them know if I owe them any money or the other way round.

For the last 12months, I’ve either been employed (and paying tax via PAYE – pay as you earn) or unemployed (where the tax is taken off my unemployment benefit at source), and since I’ve been employed from mid-January I’ve been paying “Emergency Tax” (i.e. tax at a higher rate than normal) as for some reason my “proper” tax code still hasn’t reached my work.

However, I’ve also been running a small business which has been generating some income – around £2,500 to £3,500 at a rough estimate. But, alas, most (if not all) of that income disappears into business costs: I’ve got a dedicated web server in London which is a “necessary asset” to run the business: that’s around £3,000 I *should* be able to write off against the income, then I had to buy a new computer to conduct business on (another £880) and then there’s the dedicated work telephone line (only around £120 per year) and then there’s the internet connection – £300 per year. Total income at most: £3,500. Total expenses: £4300. So hopefully I’ll be entitled to a tax rebate or something…

However, I’ve got to double check 3×30 page documents before I’m even mildly sure I can claim some of that back (I may only be able to claim 40% of the cost of the new computer back for instance), but I’m hoping the whole process won’t be as complicated as it appears!

So the forms that are sitting on my desk awaiting completion: New Credit Card application form (4 pages), Mortgage transfer form (8 pages), Tax form (30 pages), 2 letters to return to the bank (to close “dormant” accounts) and I’m sure there’s quite a bit more paper work to do. *sob* I hate doing paper work – don’t these people understand I’ve got a cat that needs fuss? (hey, I wonder if I use Smokey as the “company mascot” whether or not I can get a tax-rebate on her cat food and litter? It might be worth a try 😉 ).

(obligatory disclaimer: nothing in this post should be interpreted as any sort of tax or financial advice yadda yadda yadda. I am not a lawyer [IANAL] and I have never played one of those on TV or on stage…)

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