Filing My Tax Return

For anyone who is self-employed, files their tax return on line and like me usually leaves it until the last minute, the month of January is not always a month that is looked forward to.  I've just spent the last two weeks procrastinating and doing everything I can think of to avoid knuckling down to it.  Little Bird's birthday and Parent consultations at the school this week have helped of course.

Yesterday and today, however, prompted by a Radio 4 phone in on the subject, which induced a bit of guilt, plus the fact that the ironing basket is now empty, meant that I could put it off no longer, so I bit the bullet and dragged everything out to start work on it.  With only 16 days to go until it has to be filed it is a bit late, but I think I'm the sort of person who needs a bit of pressure to perform and there's still plenty of time left.

Yesterday evening was spent poring over figures, receipts, bank statements, computer print outs, and bookkeeping ledgers in an attempt to work it all out.  It took a few hours and there were a few distractions, such as having to make the dinner, the dog having a toileting incident, Little Bird having an accident (not too serious thankfully) and the printer not working, etc.  All pretty normal things really, but just very distracting when you are trying hard to concentrate.

Today has been spent checking out last year's return, making some extra last minute calculations and then transferring the information to my online tax account.  It made interesting reading.  I have just a couple more adjustments to make to it and I will be ready to click the 'File Your Return' button. Phew!

Fortunately for me, my accounts aren't that complicated and I find it quite interesting to do them.  It is useful to know how to run a small business and keep accounts.  It all adds to your personal skill base and it is good to be able to look back and see if you've actually made progress (and profit). Not as much as I would like in my case, but businesses do take time to build and I don't apply myself as much as I should really, treating it more like a hobby than a serious enterprise.  I have good intentions, but they always seem to get lost along the way.

Anyway, I always feel a little better when the accounts have been done, and I always promise myself that I won't leave it until the last minute the following year.  In fact, I've enjoyed it so much this year when I finally got down to it, that as a consequence, I have started to actually get ahead of myself and have been calculating next year's accounts, so that they are ready to go for when they need to be filed.  I may even file them early this year, you never know.

It will nice not to have 'Tax Return' on my to do list every week for the whole year (and then ignore it) as I did last year, it is great to do as much as I can of it now, put it right aside until April when I can complete it,  and then get on with other aspects of the business.  This might just be the year when I actually do a head start.  I hope so.

Does anyone else have to file a tax return at this time of year?  How do you go about it?  Are you really organised and get yours in early or like me does it get left until quite late?