Accountants in Lucas Green

Online Self Assessment returns are due by 31 January, along with any balancing payment — and HMRC's £100 penalty applies the moment the deadline passes, even if you owe nothing. Most Lucas Green clients who come to us in January still file on time; the records just need to arrive before the last week.

UK residential property sales have their own regime: report and pay within 60 days of completion, separately from Self Assessment. Other gains report annually. Mixing up the two timetables is a common and expensive mistake.

Compliance checks are usually specific: one return, one figure, one question. Answered promptly and with evidence, most close quickly. The expensive enquiries are the ones that started as unanswered letters.

Rental profits need reporting once they're more than trivial, and the rules differ for furnished holiday lets, rent-a-room and ordinary lets. Landlords are also in the first wave of Making Tax Digital — property income counts towards the £50,000 threshold.

HMRC receives data directly from online platforms about sellers' income. If a side hustle has grown past the £1,000 trading allowance, coming forward first is always cheaper than being written to — penalties scale with how the disclosure starts.

The businesses that struggle with tax bills rarely have a tax problem; they have a timing problem. Knowing the bill in September instead of January — which filing early gives you for free — is the difference between planning and scrambling.

If you're a sole trader or landlord anywhere near the £50,000 income mark, Making Tax Digital will change your filing rhythm from 2026: four digital updates a year plus a final declaration. Clients who move their records to software early find the transition a non-event.

If you contract through your own limited company, IR35 asks whether you'd be an employee without it. For medium and large clients, the status decision is theirs; for small clients, it's still yours — and getting it wrong in either direction costs money.