Accountants in Upper Edmonton

If a return is late because HMRC asked for one you don't actually need, it can sometimes be withdrawn entirely — penalties included. And where there's a genuine reasonable excuse, appeals succeed more often than people expect. The wrong move is ignoring the letters.

Miss 31 January and the £100 fine is automatic; three months later daily penalties start. If you're behind on a return, the maths almost always favours filing quickly over waiting — penalties grow on a timetable, and HMRC charges interest either way.

Receipts win arguments. HMRC doesn't demand a shoebox of paper any more — photos in an app are fine — but every deduction needs evidence behind it. A ten-minute weekly habit beats a January archaeology dig, every time.

From April 2026, self-employed people and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 move onto Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC, not one annual return. The year before is the right time to get bookkeeping into shape.

Status under IR35 turns on the reality of the engagement: control, substitution, mutuality of obligation. Contracts matter, but working practices matter more. A written status assessment for each engagement is cheap insurance.

Since Section 24, individual landlords can't deduct mortgage interest as an expense — it's a 20% tax credit instead, which pushes some higher-rate landlords into surprising bills. Whether to hold property personally or through a company is now a genuine question with genuine trade-offs.

Directors paying themselves a salary still need a PAYE scheme and RTI submissions, even in a one-person company. It's a five-minute monthly task with software — and a recurring penalty generator without it.

Timing disposals across tax years, using losses properly, and the spousal transfer rules can all legitimately reduce capital gains bills — but only before the sale. CGT planning after completion is just arithmetic.