O/T self-employment short tax return

[psychocandy]

Yes, sorry, it is O/T somewhat because it applies to my Mrs sole trader business rather than my ltd company. Business only turns over £10K or so not too keen to pay £100s for an accountant to do tax return.

Anyway, been looking and it seems if your turnover is less than £73K you can use short version of self-employment pages.

Looking at the pages and the notes, it seems all they want is turnover, and expenses total - thats it. No mention of creditors/debtors or opening/ closing stock which seems weird.

It seems you can enter figures purely on a cash flow basis. Money in minus money out for expenses.

I was planning to sort out the accounts properly using debtors, opening stock, closing stock etc but it seems I dont have to do this? Is this right?

Thinking about it I guess it all carries forward to next year anyway. i.e. Even if I dont take stock into account this year it will be used next year etc. Same if I dont claim for an invoice recieved this year and paid next year. Not sure it'd all work if you close the business though at some point? Might screw things up.

Anyone know how this all works?

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

As it stands at present, the so called "three line accounts" still need to be adjusted for debtors /creditors / stock - the exemption is around reporting figures on the tax return, not around how they7 are put together in the first place.

A even simpler "cash accounting" system - with no adjustments - is on the horizon, 13-14 tax year AFAIR. Howeer there are messy transitional rules to get you on there, and anti avoidance stuff, so "simple" becomes relative.

[psychocandy]

As it stands at present, the so called "three line accounts" still need to be adjusted for debtors /creditors / stock - the exemption is around reporting figures on the tax return, not around how they7 are put together in the first place.

A even simpler "cash accounting" system - with no adjustments - is on the horizon, 13-14 tax year AFAIR. Howeer there are messy transitional rules to get you on there, and anti avoidance stuff, so "simple" becomes relative.

It confusing though that the notes for the full self-assessment pages mention stock/creditors/debtors etc but the notes for the short pages make no mention of. They do imply that you can simply put down what money came in, what money went out as expenses without even bothering about any of this?

Honestly, take a look at the notes....

BTW - thanks for the free advice anyway.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

The cynical - inducing tax inspectors speaking off the record when simplified accounts came in - suggest the notes were deliberately vague by way of a rope to hang the small unrepresented business on.

[psychocandy]

The cynical - inducing tax inspectors speaking off the record when simplified accounts came in - suggest the notes were deliberately vague by way of a rope to hang the small unrepresented business on.

Yeh. Its weird that the full notes mention it but not the short notes. Very strange indeed expecting HMRC forms to be clear etc.