The importance of declaring all of your income on your Self Assessment
The importance of declaring all of your income on your Self Assessment
It is usual practice when you are working with an accountant for them to send out a ‘checklist’ before they complete your personal tax return to ensure all sources of income are included.
Just because they may have been working with you for years, does not mean that they will necessarily know everything about you, for instance in the last year, you may have sold an item or a property which needs to be declared, or you may have had a baby and now the high income child benefit needs to be considered, therefore the checklist is an integral part of your tax return.
Your accountant will also send across the whole self assessment tax return for you to review and as tempting as it might be to just go to the back page and review the tax position, the importance of looking through the return is equally important, after all this is a summary of your income and expenses and it is you that will be signing the tax return to say that the information is correct.
The following section contains the declaration on the tax return, which is the part that you will sign…
So, what are the penalties if your self assessment tax return is found to be incorrect?
The penalties for tax evasion can be financial, criminal or sometimes both, although the majority of cases are dealt with by HMRC directly.
HMRC will only prosecute if the evidence shows that a criminal offence has been committed.
The fines / penalties fall under a number of categories, the most common of which are listed below.
| Mistake or misinterpretation | If you have made a genuine mistake which has resulted in the underpayment of tax, HMRC will treat this as an honest mistake and there is unlikely to be any penalty as long as you pay the underpaid tax and respond to HMRC in a timely manner. |
| Failing to take reasonable care | An example for this could mean that due care has not been taken whilst filling out the tax return, such as not including a supplementary form. HMRC regards this as a moderate offence which could result in a penalty of up to 30% of the tax owed. |
| Deliberately understating | If HMRC makes an enquiry and concludes that income was deliberately understated this is regarded as serious tax fraud, an example of this could be that the expenses have been overstated which has led to lower of no tax As this is considered as tax fraud, the penalty can be up to 70% of the tax owed. |
| Not declaring income | The most severe tax evasion is charged for deliberately mis-leading HMRC when completing a tax return and then taking steps to hide this. This type of fraud can result in penalties of up to 200% of the tax due. |
The most severe offences can include fines of up to £5,000 and sentences of up to 7 years in prison.
As always, the sooner you start your Self Assessment tax return the better – once the financial year ends on 5th April each year, this is the best time to start gathering the information together and liaising with your Accountant. This approach ensures that all the information for the previous year is fresh in your mind and easy to locate. This should also ensure that transactions are not missed.
Also, make sure you complete the checklist in full and give all the relevant information.
Once your tax return is complete, make sure you read it through before you sign and it is submitted to HMRC, after all it is you that is declaring that the information is correct.
If you need assistance with your Self Assessment, please get in touch with us here at Kennedys Accounting, we will be pleased to assist you.