The Lemon Fool

I am an employee and higher rate tax payer. I pay my tax through PAYE and then submit a self assessment tax return, on which I report some extras -- child benefit (which I repay), professional fees (~£200), bank account interest (~£200), royalty payments (~£200), Gift Aid donations (~£500). After doing SA, I then pay (or get paid) whatever is owed.

Soon, I will not be claiming child benefit any more. According to HMRC's website, I will then not need to submit a self assessment return, because none of the other extras above seems to qualify as a reason to submit a return. But if I were to stop SA, how would I report all the other extras to HMRC? It seems to me that the simplest thing would be to carry on doing SA -- is that right?

In the past HMRC kept saying I did not need to fill in an SA. I ignored them and continued and in that time I either owed them or they owed me on a number of occasions. IMO, keep filling in the SA. Saying that last year they owed me 20p and this year I owed them 1.80p, gone are the days of hundred's in difference, they seem to be getting more accurate figures nowadays.

seagles wrote:In the past HMRC kept saying I did not need to fill in an SA. I ignored them and continued and in that time I either owed them or they owed me on a number of occasions. IMO, keep filling in the SA. Saying that last year they owed me 20p and this year I owed them 1.80p, gone are the days of hundred's in difference, they seem to be getting more accurate figures nowadays.

Which is why they don't want you to submit an SA - they see dealing with it as not worth it for a couple of pounds.

beniamino wrote:I am an employee and higher rate tax payer. I pay my tax through PAYE and then submit a self assessment tax return, on which I report some extras -- child benefit (which I repay), professional fees (~£200), bank account interest (~£200), royalty payments (~£200), Gift Aid donations (~£500). After doing SA, I then pay (or get paid) whatever is owed.

Soon, I will not be claiming child benefit any more. According to HMRC's website, I will then not need to submit a self assessment return, because none of the other extras above seems to qualify as a reason to submit a return. But if I were to stop SA, how would I report all the other extras to HMRC? It seems to me that the simplest thing would be to carry on doing SA -- is that right?

I take it the bank account interest is the amount above the Personal Savings Allowance (which for an HRT is £500pa), in which case you do have to declare it. Possibly the prof. fees & royalty payments fall under the trading allowance of £1000? In which case you don't have to declare it. But the thing you do want to declare is the Gift Aid donations, as that pushes up your HRT lower band up effectively getting you 25% back on the donations (20% grossed up).

Thanks everyone. I think it will generally be slightly in my financial interest to submit a return, so I guess I will attempt to carry on doing so.

beniamino wrote:I am an employee and higher rate tax payer. I pay my tax through PAYE and then submit a self assessment tax return, on which I report some extras -- child benefit (which I repay), professional fees (~£200), bank account interest (~£200), royalty payments (~£200), Gift Aid donations (~£500). After doing SA, I then pay (or get paid) whatever is owed.

Soon, I will not be claiming child benefit any more. According to HMRC's website, I will then not need to submit a self assessment return, because none of the other extras above seems to qualify as a reason to submit a return. But if I were to stop SA, how would I report all the other extras to HMRC? It seems to me that the simplest thing would be to carry on doing SA -- is that right?

If you are not doing SA then

- Savings interest above the allowance - HMRC will adjust your tax code if you are a tax payer - https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings
- Reclaiming tax on professional fees - You can submit a P87 or claim by phone - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-incom ... penses-p87
- Royalty payments - Likely under the trading allowance - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-al ... come#trade
- Gift Aid - If a higher rate tax payer and you don't do SA then you can ask HMRC to adjust your tax code - https://www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid