Member Article

Prepare for the new tax year

With Business Link

As the Chinese celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Pig, business owners need to start preparing for their own New Year – the financial one – courtesy of HM Revenue and Customs. April 6 is the most important date in the commercial calendar. Yet the only fireworks seen around this landmark are the sparks that fly if you don’t complete your Year End returns correctly or on time!

This month you should receive an employer’s pack from HMRC containing the Employers CD-Rom covering all up-to-date guidance, the Employer Bulletin and the Employers Orderline form for the coming tax year. If there are any changes to the tax or NIC rates, thresholds or allowances as a result of the Chancellor’s Budget, you may also receive an updated pack.

Do make sure you look through the pack to remind yourself exactly what is required of you both at the end of this current tax year and the start of the next and therefore ensure you are prepared. It’s also worth checking out the Business Link website where there is a guide to which forms and returns you may need to complete, where you can get them from, the key tax office deadline dates, and instructions on filling in PAYE forms and returns.

There is also a step by step guide on what to do at the end of each tax year. With Forms P9 and 9D, P11 and 11D, P14 and P60, not to mention the P35, it can be a mind-boggling process so get as much guidance as possible from internet sites created to help and simplify. If you employ fewer than 50 people, you can fill in many of the forms using PAYE Online at the HMRC website. What’s more, there is a financial incentive to do so! The Business Link website gives more details on this.

But it’s not just a case of keeping the Inland Revenue informed. At the end of the financial year, you need to give every employee whose pay is at or above the Lower Earnings Limit (£84 per week/£364 per month in 2006/07) their own personal record of what they’ve been paid, including expenses and benefits, and what money has been taken from their earnings. This is done by filling in and maintaining form P11 (also called a Deductions Working Sheet), obtainable through the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Employers Orderline tel: 0845 7 646 646

The whole end/start of tax year can be overwhelming, especially when the day to day affairs of your business are all-consuming. Business Link can create your own personal ‘tax calendar’ to print out for future reference. That, plus regular email alerts as each date approaches, will give you no excuse for missing an important deadline!

For Business Link services in your local area, call 0845 600 9006 or visit the website www.businesslink.gov.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .