At year-end and coming up to self-assessment time, we’ll ask you for various documents to be able to finalise your accounts.
It’s almost inevitable that we’ll ask for a lot of documents so we can do your annual accounts and tax returns for you.
We understand how that can be frustrating, however, so here’s what you can expect us to ask for and why it helps you.
Paperwork for self-assessment tax returns
Income tax is levied on an individual’s income that goes over the personal allowance (£12,570 for the 2022/23 tax year). It’s an easy process for employees because their taxes are deducted automatically from their income via the PAYE system.
But for the self-employed or those with an extra source of income over the allowance, there is no automatic system – they need to file a self-assessment tax return instead.
This is the main reason why we need so much paperwork from you – we need to prove to HMRC how much income you’ve received and how much you need to be taxed.
As you might expect, the Revenue doesn’t like being short-changed. So, if you’ve made a mistake on your return, and HMRC finds out, it might hand you a hefty financial fine – even if the error was a genuine mistake.
Therefore, we need to report your income correctly. If we haven’t done our job properly and analysed every document related to your income, we might have made a mistake ourselves.
So, we’ll ask you for a range of documents related to rental income, self-employment income, property and asset sales, and dividend payments. We may also need to provide HMRC with your P60 or P45.
But tax season isn’t just about reporting what you owe – it’s about claiming for any and all tax relief and allowances you can to lower your tax bill.
To do that, we’ll need access to some of your other documents, including your P11D, which would be for any benefits in kind you receive from your employment.
We’ll also ask you for your business and property management expenses and private pension payments so we can put more of your own money back into your pocket. Letting us handle your bookkeeping will make this easier for us.
Paperwork for company tax returns
The paperwork we need from you to complete a corporate tax return is much the same, in principle at least – records on income, expenditure and anything that will help us claim tax relief for you.
A company tax return is also called a CT600. It will include standard company information but also requires some complex calculations. Depending on your company, these include calculations like:
- turnover
- income (including profits, trading losses brought forward, property income)
- chargeable gains
- profits before other deductions and reliefs
- deductions and reliefs
- tax reliefs and reductions
- tax reconciliation
- losses.
Just looking at this list, you might appreciate why we need all the paperwork from you we need.
Documents for annual accounts
As well as an annual company tax return, every limited company must also file annual accounts to show how they have performed over the accounting period. It’s a matter of transparency and is important not only for the Government and public but for your shareholders, too.
A set of company accounts typically consist of:
- a profit and loss account
- a balance sheet
- notes
- a director’s report.
To put all of these together, we need a lot of information spread across various documents.
For instance, for us to put together a profit and loss statement, we need to track your revenue, determine the cost of goods and services; figure out your gross profit; add up your overheads; know your operating income, and adjust for other income or expenses.
For your balance sheet, meanwhile, we need information on your current and noncurrent assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity (the amount of money your company would have left over if you sold all your assets).
Hopefully, just a short blog as this gives you an indication of why we tend to ask for a range of different documents to do our work.
Get in contact if you need help with your accounts or tax returns.