I’ve put it off since the UK tax year ended back in April 2008 but I’m sick of having it hang over my head and have finally sat down and filed the damned thing.
Most of the work was already done since I created a system for keeping track of revenue and expenses back in January when I was at home in Canada. That’s made keeping on top of things a lot easier and from January to the end of the tax year in April I just made sure to hang on to receipts and put any revenue and expenses onto the spreadsheet as soon as possible. Unfortunately I’ve been pretty slack since then, but it means that when I sat down to do my return today, it really hasn’t been as painful as I was expecting.
Actually getting registered to file my return online was a hassle though. I had to make a few phonecalls to Inland Revenue in the UK to get them to update my address to my aunt’s house, then had to wait for some passwords to be sent though the post, then had to get in touch with her to get them. But once that was taken care of I was fully registered and able to file my return online.
So this morning I’ve been doing just that. It’s taken me about a half hour to go through my spreadsheet checking numbers and things and about 20 minutes to actually file the return. The website for filing is very straightforward and, although there were a couple of things I didn’t totally understand, I muddled through ok. Pretty painless really, I’m not sure why I’ve put it off for this long, although in the UK if you file online you have until January 2009 so I guess I’m actually early!
Because I worked full time in the UK for eight months for the tax year, my income has been boosted and I owe some tax. Boo. It’s not a huge amount but it’s a bit of a chunk out of my saving so I’m thinking I will start to set aside a bit here and there to go towards tax so I don’t end up coming up short next year.
One bit of advice I will give… keep on top of your records! For the current tax year I haven’t done a thing since about June and I’ve just been motivated to get my books in order. Catching up a year later will be a nightmare so in future Im going to do my best to record everything as I go.
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