Tax return time

[Gavster]

One side effect of launching several side hustles in 2021 was increasing my personal tax return from a handful of entries into several thousand luckily they export easily so shouldn't be to tricky.

[Rich B]

Leaving it late - I did mine last week. Only one employer though so it's a (admittedly expensive) piece of cake.

[JonMad]

I've half done mine. Normally I leave it to the last week of Jan for no good reason.

[mik]

I ALWAYS do mine during the christmas break.

Unless I get holiday-happy and forget.

Like this year.

Balls.

Did it last week though.

Owed £3.10 (yes really).

Received 3x emails urging me to pay my outstanding tax to avoid a fine.

[Gavster]

It's been 20 months since I did a tax return, because I did my 2020-21 tax return in May 2021 to get past the shitshow of that tax year as quicky as possible.

[GG.]

I struggled with mine this year as had to work out carry forward allowance and threshold earning calcs for pension allowances. Very, very tedious.

Basically I've run out and now the tax man gets to shaft me extra hard in January with a nice year-end back tax bill for 45% of the amount my employer puts into my pension...

You always know the government is on your side when they've decided you're no longer allowed any pension tax allowance despite giving a triple lock state pension increase to your parents in law despite them having massively generous final salary pension schemes - why the fuck is that not means tested?? Wife does not work and therefore has no pension but of course I'm not allowed any of her allowance...

Complete fuckers. I'd say we're probably 98% of the way towards a very large exodus of high earners out of the country (to the extent that is not already happening and there are suggestions it is). Just a few more turns of the screw and it just wont be worth putting up with it any more.

[GG.]

Received 3x emails urging me to pay my outstanding tax to avoid a fine.

Yes I have recevied the annoying emails as well. Sadly I owe them knocking on for a five figure sum (bye bye new Porsche deposit...) Can we do swapsies?? They sure as fuck won't be receiving my money until right before the deadline.

[Rich B]

Wait til you go to pay it, their online system is slick as fuck - scam a QR code, open your online banking and pow - it's paid in seconds.

Somewhat different to the timescale on the process it's taking to claim back some tax relief on pension payments with them (hour long phone call, two letters written and a 3 week expected timeline...)

[Gavster]

Wait til you go to pay it, their online system is slick as fuck - scam a QR code, open your online banking and pow - it's paid in seconds.

Over Christmas I was chatting with a website content/UX designer and he was explaining how the gov.uk domain is the envy of other governments around the world. Apparently, it's the slickest user experience of any country you'll find, from how to locate info, through to process like the one you described.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I had my accountant do mine 2mo ago

Got a nice bill through in December

[duncs500]

Noob question, do I need to bother to do a self assessment if I receive a very small dividend payout (40 whole pounds!) on top of my normal PAYE (This suggests it's tax free, but I dunno if that means I don't still have to fill something in)?

[GG.]

Yes that amount looks to be within the dividend allowance and not taxable but I'd probably ring HMRC to confirm you don't need to fill in a form.

If you pay tax at the higher bracket (e.g. above c. £50k) you may need to complete a form anyway though (e.g. if you claim child benefit or are putting money into a pension (in which case you should be claiming extra money back for your pension contribution as your pension provider will only claim back basic rate tax relief)).

[DeskJockey]

I struggled with mine this year as had to work out carry forward allowance and threshold earning calcs for pension allowances. Very, very tedious.

Basically I've run out and now the tax man gets to shaft me extra hard in January with a nice year-end back tax bill for 45% of the amount my employer puts into my pension...

You always know the government is on your side when they've decided you're no longer allowed any pension tax allowance despite giving a triple lock state pension increase to your parents in law despite them having massively generous final salary pension schemes - why the fuck is that not means tested?? Wife does not work and therefore has no pension but of course I'm not allowed any of her allowance...

Complete fuckers. I'd say we're probably 98% of the way towards a very large exodus of high earners out of the country (to the extent that is not already happening and there are suggestions it is). Just a few more turns of the screw and it just wont be worth putting up with it any more.

Where are they going?

[Mito Man]

Pretty damning.

[DeskJockey]

Assuming it is going to happen. It assumes that money is the only motivator keeping people in any one place. And, that's not the case.

[Rich B]

Wealth of $1million... that ain't exactly Bill Gates level. Our 1,500 have gone straight to Portugal to retire and play golf.

[Jobbo]

My accountant submitted mine in November - would have been earlier but I delayed her because it felt too early

I’ve been receiving text and email reminders to pay since Christmas. Set up payment to leave my account on 30 Jan because there’s no discount for paying early.

[Mito Man]

Wealth of $1million... that ain't exactly Bill Gates level. Our 1,500 have gone straight to Portugal to retire and play golf.

But that’s the real meat and potatoes in terms of tax contributors. Being replaced by 1500 Albanians a day who I’m sure will do just as well to fill the hole

[GG.]

Assuming it is going to happen. It assumes that money is the only motivator keeping people in any one place. And, that's not the case.

Correct. My son is in a good school here and close to his family otherwise I’d already be gone.

If you’re talking about financial services (which is the bulk of the UKs high income professionals), then the destinations re generally HK, Singapore and Dubai.

[GG.]

Wealth of $1million... that ain't exactly Bill Gates level. Our 1,500 have gone straight to Portugal to retire and play golf.

And that’s why that chart is not really helpful as it tells you little about how tax revenues to the exchequer would be affected. I don’t have anything like a million bucks in net wealth but pay many times what a lot of those people do in tax as the UK is predominantly taxed on income not wealth.

My recently widowed granny has net wealth higher than I do on account of a house with no mortgage but I will pay exponentially more tax. Basically - keep ramping up tax on HENRYs and they will leave.