Self Assessment (SA)

[houmie]

Hi,

I am still new to contracting and have to do my self assessment for 2011/2012.

Two questions are confusing:

Did you make contributions towards a personal pension or retirement annuity? This does not include payments you make to your employer's pension scheme, which are deducted from your pay:

My own Ltd company paid every month a sum into a pension plan for myself as an employee. But this was not deducted as such from the monthly salary, it was an extra perk, the way I see it. So from Self assessment point of view, what is the answer to this question?


The other question is:

Have you had any 2011-12 Income Tax refunded or off-set by us or JobCentre Plus?

Well I have received in January 2012 a personal tax refund for 2010/11, which was the result of my previous year self assessment. Does this affect the answer to this question or do I select 'No' ?

Later on within the section of my employment within my own company as a director the following question is asked:

Have you received any taxable benefits and expense payments from xxx Ltd ?

Well, do I have to put the company pension contributions as a taxable benefit or not?


Many Thanks,

[Clare@InTouch]

The Pension question is only relevant if you paid it personally, not if your employer paid. Therefore you can ignore that question. It's also not a benefit in kind.

The tax refund from a prior year can also be ignored.

[houmie]

Thank you

[houmie]

P11D

Oh by the way one more thing, how about P11D? Isn't it part of SA? I couldn't see anywhere asking me about that and I already reached the 'Calculate tax return' section.

[Clare@InTouch]

The P11d is part of the payroll process, and any details would go under the Employment section

[Sockpuppet]

Some advice given to me by CM (where has she run off to!) was don't fill in your SA before the end of the year (Jan) as they have x length of time to investigate it from Jan not the date you file it.

[houmie]

@Clare

Thanks for clarification. I am about to switch my accountancy and the current one snapped quite a bit that I am going to leave. All my online access has been deactivated straight away and in the email I received this:

Just to be clear, the only remaining work we will be completing for you now will be your company’s March 2012 accounts – you will need to ensure that your new accountants complete your 2012 personal tax return and 2012 P11D by the due dates.

I still remained very friendly and professional and indicated that the SA actually falls under her and not the new accountancy. She eventually accepted to do the SA herself.

But it is quite confusing as she had told me a week before:

We can also confirm that your 2012 Employer's Annual Return (form P35) has been successfully submitted online to HMRC.

1) Therefore if the Employers Annual return was really submitted, shouldn't P11D have been part of it?
2) Should I even trust her to do the SA for me, or shall I rather go safe and just do it myself? She told me already the final amount what is owed to me, which I could reproduce on the online SA website. But have't submitted the online SA yet.


@58Sockpuppet

Thanks for the tip. I am not sure if I understood you clearly, so you are saying its best to do the SA later in the year (closer to December) so that HMRC has less time to investigate my claims and potentially giving me unnecessary hassle?

Many Thanks,

[Sockpuppet]

Thanks for the tip. I am not sure if I understood you clearly, so you are saying its best to do the SA later in the year (closer to December) so that HMRC has less time to investigate my claims and potentially giving me unnecessary hassle?

Aye. No harm in doing the numbers now and clicking submit sometime towards the start of Jan though.