Self-Assessment Checklist

Income

Employment

For all employments held during the tax year, you should have either a P60 or P45:

• P60 - issued by your employer(s) at the end of the tax year (5 April) to detail your taxable income and tax deductions for that year. If you made student loan deductions, this figure will also be provided.

• P45 - issued by your employer(s) when you leave a job during a tax year. Similar to the P60, it details your taxable income and tax deductions for that year. If you made student loan deductions you'll also need to provide your payslips for the year at these aren't included on your P45.

If you have received taxable benefits during the year that aren't on your payslip your employer should provide you with a P11D:

• P11D - issued by employer(s) at the end of the tax year (5 April) to report taxable benefits provided to you that aren't taxed on your payslip. Examples of benefits provided by employers are company vehicles & private medical insurance. Your employer has until 6 July following the end of the tax year to provide you with your P11D. If you had two jobs during the year, you may have two P11Ds.

Rental Property

IMPORTANT: When you sell your UK rental property, you now have 60 days to report and pay any tax due to HMRC. For more information, click here.

If you receive income from rental property, we will need the following documentation:

• If you are a new client this year, details of the property being let (date purchased, price paid, legal fees and other costs on purchase, mortgage taken out, improvements made to the property, history of dates lived in property and dates property let, whether it is furnished or unfurnished, expected current value)

• Details of rental receipts during the tax year with any management fee paid split out separately

• Details of all expenditure on the rental property during the year (insurance, service charge, ground rent, repairs & maintenance, capital improvements (e.g. new kitchen), utilities paid, details of trips made to the property (mileage), advertising costs or any other costs directly related to renting the property).

• Mortgage statement showing the capital/interest repayment split for the property - you can request this from your bank if they have not sent you one.

• If you sold your property during the year, we will also need the date sold, selling price, legal fees and other costs on sale.

If you rent a room in your house, then we will need details of the income received during the tax year.

Sole Trade Business

If you have a sole trade business, we should have discussed with you how to keep your records.

If you use online bookkeeping software, please notify us once your records are up to date and they are ready for review.

If you keep a spreadsheet, please email us your spreadsheet for the relevant period.

Bank Interest

Your bank should issue you with a statement for each bank account showing how much interest you received for the tax year or you can add up the amounts for each month. All interest should now be paid gross (no tax deducted).

You do not need to send us information about interest from cash ISAs, premium bond receipts or interest from NS&I tax-free products, namely Fixed Interest Savings Certificates and Index-linked Savings Certificates as these are not taxable.

Dividends

If you hold personal investments that are not contained within an ISA, then you should provide us with the dividend vouchers for the tax year.

If you are a director of a limited company and we complete your company accounts then we will review your dividends as part of our accounts service so you do not need to provide us with details of these. 

Pension Received

State pensions - these are paid on a 4 weekly basis. HMRC will normally send a letter annually explaining how much the pension is increasing to. You will need to provide us with this document or bank statements which show the payment figures for a 4 week period during the year.  

Private pensions -  you should receive a P60 for this income which we will need.

Other Income

Capital Gains Tax - if you sold any shares, property, crypto or other assets in the tax year, we will need a breakdown of what you sold, when you sold it and the amount you sold it for. We will also need the purchase date and price and any other costs associated with the asset.

Foreign income - if you are UK resident then you need to declare your worldwide income on your UK tax return. You'll need to provide details of any foreign income received during the tax year including any foreign tax paid.

Taxable state benefits - e.g. Jobseeker’s allowance

Other - if you have some other income not mentioned above then discuss this with us to see if it needs to be included on your tax return. If in doubt, it's always better to double check.

Reliefs

Job Expenses

If you personally pay for expenses related to your employment you may be able to claim additional tax relief. The most common examples of these are:

• Mileage - if you receive less than 45p per mile for business mileage in your own vehicle from your employer, then we can usually reduce your tax liability. We will need the number of business miles travelled and the rate your employer reimbursed you.

• Uniform Allowance - if your employer has a set dress code then you may be eligible to various reliefs including uniform and cleaning allowances - suits & ties are generally not allowed. Find out what flat rate expenses you can claim tax relief on by checking the standard amounts to cover clothing and tools.

• Professional subscriptions - if your job requires you to hold a membership to a professional body (and your employer does not pay for this) then we can usually claim the cost of this and reduce your tax liability. We would need proof of payment (invoice and/or bank statement).

Pension Contributions

Personal pension contributions - if you contribute to a personal scheme, then you may be able to claim additional tax relief. You will need to provide:

• The name of the provider

• Your contract/membership number

• The amounts and dates of the contributions

• Your annual pension statement

Company pension contributions - there are two types of arrangements whereby your company makes pension contributions on your behalf:

• After tax contribution - this scheme will be referred to as 'relief at source' in your pension documents. You may be able to claim additional tax relief on these contributions so you will need to provide us with your payslips for the full year (April to March) and your annual pension statement.

• Before tax contribution - this scheme will be referred to as 'net pay' in your pension documents. You have already received full tax relief on these contributions. We will only require information if you've exceeded the pension threshold (see details below in other information).

If you are unsure which arrangement your company uses then send us your most recent payslip and an annual pension statement so we can advise further.

SEIS/EIS

If you invested in an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS/SEIS) then you will probably be able to receive tax relief. You should receive a certificate from HMRC (form SEIS3) for each investment and will need to pass this on to us.

It is also important to let provide us with additional information if you sell an investment or the company you invested in goes into liquidation.

Gift Aid DONATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS

If you made donations to a qualifying charity and claimed gift aid then you may be able to claim additional tax relief (if you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer). Some memberships such as National Trust and English Heritage also enable you to claim gift aid. We need the following details:

• Charity name/Membership name

• Date of donation/membership subscription

• Donation amount/membership amount

• Gift aid claimed? Yes/No

Important note: Gift Aid donations are not to be confused with Crowdfunding donations which can appear on the same website such as JustGiving. We cannot claim additional tax relief on Crowdfunding donations.

Other Information

Change Of Circumstances

Please let us know if your circumstances have changed so we can update our records, this includes:

• Name change

• Marital status change

• Address change

• Change to number of dependents

Tax Code

We will need your tax coding notices from HMRC over the year. If we are registered as your agent then we should have access to this information but if we have only recently taken you on then please provide these.

Child Benefit

If you receive child benefit, are earning over £50,000 & when compared to your spouse, you're the highest earner - we need to add this to your self-assessment tax return. Let us know when you started receiving child benefit, how much you've received and how many children you have.

Marriage Allowance

If one spouse is below the higher rate threshold (£50,270 for 2023/24) and the other spouse is below the personal allowance (£12,570 for 2023/24) you can claim the marriage allowance - this will save you just over £200 in tax. We will need your partners details (i.e. name, national insurance number & date of marriage)

Pension Thresholds

If you earn more than £200,000, please provide us with details of your pension contributions (both employer and employee) for the current year. You should receive annual statements from your providers. If this is your first year with us, please also send us the three previous years pension statements as you can normally bring forward unused allowances.

We would suggest speaking to an IFA (we recommend Jim Monger) before paying into a pension: www.millwardmay.co.uk/independent-financial-advisor.