How to meet your tax deadline

For most employees the key things you will need are:

• P60 which give details of all income and tax paid during a tax year and is supplied by your employer during the year
• P11D this sets out any employee benefits and expenses - again supplied by your employer
• Your HMRC notice of coding which shows your tax allowance entitlements and tax brackets. The Revenue generally sends these out in January or February
• Any building society or bank interest payment details
• Share dividend vouchers
• Contract notes for any shares bought or sold during the year
• Details of any pension contributions or receipts
• The self employed should also have financial statements or accounts for their business.

Then you can start filling in the forms. The HMRC is trying to encourage people to file their returns online. Anyone wanting to file over the internet must first register with the HMRC and this can take at least a week so start early. But if you have all your data together once you start filling in the forms online it can take less than half an hour to complete.

When filling out the forms if you cannot enter exact figures make sure you put in your best guess and make it clear that they are estimated figures and get the final figures to the Revenue as soon as you can. Don't delay sending the form off.

When you come to fill in the forms make sure you read everything carefully and avoid the common errors.

Top Tax form mistakes

According to the HMRC the top tax form mistakes are:
The most common reasons for tax returns being corrected are
1. The list price of the car is given instead of the actual benefit. (Question in box 1.16)
2. Failure to complete a separate Supplementary Page for each job - if you have had more than one job in the tax year.
3. Completing question 16 incorrectly - making a claim for both Married Couples Allowance and Additional Personal Allowance.
4. Entering the NET figure of EMPLOYEE Personal Pension Premiums instead of the Gross figure at box 14.11. You are cheating yourself here because you are claiming insufficient relief where Higher Rates of tax are payable.
5. Entering the figure of Capital Expenditure in Box 3.58 instead of the figure of Capital Allowances (i.e. claiming excessive relief).
6. Failure to complete question 19 where a Repayment is due. (This means that if the HMRC owes you money it will not pay you the money back but leave it on account against any tax you owe in the future. If you want any overpayment repaid remember to say so here.)

The most common reasons for tax returns being rejected are
1. A tick has been entered in one of the questions 1 to 9 on page 2 of the Tax Return but the supplementary page has not been forwarded with the Income Tax Return.
2. Failure to provide details for a 24 month period where the self-employed activity commenced before 6 April 1994.
3. Failure to fully complete the self-employed pages particularly after boxes 3.70/3.75.
4. Detailing information on separate Schedules instead of including the information on the Self Assessment Income Tax Return.
5. Entering manuscript notes on the Self Assessment Tax Return i.e. "see P60" and/or "information to follow" instead of entering actual figures on the form.
6. Failure to sign and date the Self Assessment Tax Return.

If you need more help and information on how to complete your tax return call the Helpline on 0845 9000 444 (open evenings and weekends - calls are charged at local rates) or visit the Revenue's Self Assessment website

You might also find the Citizen's Advice Bureaux tax help site useful.