Self Assessment Online: a step-by-step guide How to complete your Tax Return online Now you have activated the HM Revenue & Customs Self Assessment (SA) Online service and logged in, you can complete your Tax Return online. In this booklet we take you through the basic steps, showing you what you need to do at each stage. There are examples of the main screens to make it clear what you will see as you go through the return. Don’t be concerned if the content of a few screens in this guide varies slightly from what you see on your computer – these are minor changes, made as we enhance the online services over the year. Don’t worry if you make a mistake – our service picks up some of the most obvious errors. When this happens, a warning message automatically appears after you click ‘Next’. It tells you what’s wrong, and a red cross marks the place on the return where you need to revisit. Completing your return online There are five basic stages to completing your Tax Return online: 1. Telling us about you – here we check that the personal details we hold for you (like your name, address and phone numbers) are correct. 2. Tailoring your return – adjusting the form to fit you, your circumstances and income types. 3. Completing your return – here you give us the figures from all your sources of income. 4. Checking your return – make sure all the information you have entered, or allowances or reliefs you have claimed, are correct and complete. 5. Submitting your return – we will send you an immediate message online to let you know it has arrived safely. You don’t have to complete all five stages in one go. If it’s more convenient for you to work through the sequence of five stages at different times, you can do so. You can save, accurately and completely, everything you’ve done so far, take a break then come back to finish it in your own time. This booklet, and the ‘Useful features’ booklet, explain how you do this. However, please remember that you must send us the completed online return by 31January 2009, at the latest.
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Before you start to complete your return, you’ll need to collect all the information you have about your sources of income and put it in order. It’s the same information you would use if you were completing a paper Tax Return. If you’re not sure what you’ll need, don’t worry. As you work your way through the return, we’ll tell you what information and records you’ll have to refer to. Please don’t send the information and records to us with the return, but do keep them somewhere safe. If you are not already logged in, you will need to repeat the following steps: 1. Go back to the HMRC homepage www.hmrc.gov.uk 2. Click on the ‘Self Assessment’ link in the green column on the left. This takes you to the ‘Welcome to Online services’ screen. 3. Once on that page, enter your User ID and password again and click ‘Login’. This should take you to the ‘At a glance’ page. (Please note: in some cases, clicking ‘Login’ may take you to the ‘Your services’ page. If so, click on ‘Access service’ at the top right of the ‘Your services’ page and this will take you to the ‘At a glance’ page). The ‘At a glance’ page tells you about the full range of services that are available for Self Assessment online users, including online filing.
On the right of the screen there is a box, called ’File a return for 2007–08’.Click on ’File a return’ to go to ‘Welcome’ page.
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This screen explains who can and cannot submit an online return. Please take a minute to check again that you can use this service.
Once you have confirmed you can submit your return online, click the ‘Start’ button at the bottom right of the screen. This takes you through to the ‘Tell us about you’ page – the first of the five stages of completing and submitting your return online.
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Stage 1. Telling us about you – checking your personal details This page ‘Tell us about you’ shows the personal details we have for you. Please check them carefully to make sure they’re correct and complete. Please change anything that is incorrect. To do this, click on the box you want to change, delete the information it holds and type in the correct details. If there are any blank boxes and you have the information to complete them, please do so.
You’ll find the ‘Next’ button in the same place on every page. Once all the entries are correct, click the ‘Next’ button at the bottom right of the page, to move on to the next stage of the return (called ‘Tailoring your return’). It should only take two or three minutes to complete this section.
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Stage 2. Tailoring your return Here we’ll ask you about the type of income (not the amounts) you have earned; any gains you have made in the tax year and any reliefs and personal allowances you can claim. Your answers to these questions will personalise the form for you and you will only see the parts of the return that are relevant to your circumstances. All the parts of the return that don’t apply to you are automatically removed. Completing this stage of the return should take a maximum of ten minutes – probably much less if you have only a few sources of income. There are three pages of questions in all. This is the first of the three pages you will see.
First you need to tell us if you are employed and/or self-employed. Please select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as appropriate, from the drop–down menus. If you select ‘Yes’ to either of these questions, you will then see more boxes that ask you for further information. This is all part of customising the return to fit your personal situation. When you finish the first page, click ‘Next’ at the bottom right of the page to go to the next page.
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Answer all the questions on the three pages. Some of the questions are about reliefs and other allowances, which you may be able to claim. If you’re not sure what a question means, click on the ‘Help’ icon next to it. These help buttons will give you more details about that question. If you think at any point that you have answered an earlier question incorrectly, don’t worry: • Go back to that question by clicking the ‘Back’ button at the bottom right of the screen. • Find the question you got wrong and change your answer by selecting ‘Yes’ or ’No’ in the drop-down menu as appropriate, or by typing in the correct information. After you’ve completed this section, you’ll find a list of all the information you will need to have to hand to complete your return. There is also a second list, showing the pages of the return that are relevant to you. Please check that the second list shows all your income, gains, allowances and reliefs. If it doesn’t, you will need to correct the information you entered earlier. To do this, go to the navigation panel (headed ‘File a return’) on the left and click on ‘Tailor your return’. This takes you back to the start of the tailoring stage. Once you are happy that your return has been accurately personalised, please click ‘Next’ to get to the next stage – ‘Fill in your return’. Stage 3. Filling in your return This is the stage where you fill in the actual figures for each type of income, gain and allowable expense. You will need to refer to your paperwork and records for these figures. Filling in this section is very similar to completing a paper return. You need to: • Read the description of each box carefully. • Type in the appropriate figures or information, showing pounds and pence.
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This is what a typical page looks like in this section
If you don’t understand a question, click on the ‘Help’ icons information.
for more
If you’re still not sure what information we need, please call our Self Assessment Helpline (the number and opening hours are in our ‘Help and contacts’ booklet). There are two ways to save the information you have entered so far: • Click on the ‘Next’ button at the bottom right of the page. This saves everything you have done so far and takes you on to the next page. • Click on the ‘Save’ button, at the bottom left of the page. This saves everything you have done so far. Use this button if you want to log out and come back later to continue completing the return. Don’t worry if you make a mistake – our service will pick up some of the more obvious errors. If you do make such a mistake on any page, an automatic warning message will appear when you click ‘Next’ to move on to the next page. This warning message will tell you what’s wrong on the page you’ve just completed. A red cross marks the place on the page you need to correct.
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If you get a warning message, fill in the correct information and then click ‘Next’ to go to the next page. Once you’ve finished the ‘Fill in your return’ section and dealt with any errors, click ‘Next’ on the last page to go to the ‘Check your return’ page. Stage 4. Checking your return As you’ve worked your way through the return, our online service will have flagged up to you some of the more obvious errors. But it also asks you to do some final checks, once you’ve finished inserting all your information and figures. There are two checks to help you make sure your return is accurate and complete.
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First, you will see a page telling you about any mistakes you’ve made so far.
In this example, two possible errors have been identified – on the personal information section, and on the UK interest section. To correct the first error, click ‘Next’ – this takes you to the page with the mistake on it. Fill in the right information then click ‘Next’. This takes you to the next error. If there is more than one error: • • • • Correct the first mistake as we’ve just explained. Then click on ‘Next’ – this takes you to the next error. Correct that error and click ‘Next’ again. Continue until you have corrected all the errors so far.
You will then go to a page with a message that says ‘Your return contains no errors’. Please take a few moments to check that all of the information is correct. If it is, click ‘Next’ to go to the ‘View your calculation’ page.
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This is the second check. At this point, the online service shows you a summary of the tax calculation it has done for you, based on the information you’ve given. To see more details click ‘View and print your full calculation’.
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Please go through the calculation carefully to make sure that all your income and gains, and claims to reliefs and allowances, have been correctly included. You don’t have to check the arithmetic of the calculation itself, but if an aspect of your income or circumstances that affects your tax liability has not been included (or has been included incorrectly) you’ll need to go back to the relevant page to correct it. To do this, click on ‘Tailor your return’ in the menu headed ‘File a return’ on the left side of the screen. This will take you back to the tailoring section. Work your way through your return again, correcting any mistakes you’ve spotted. Your automatic tax calculation will be updated to reflect these changes. Check it again to make sure it is complete and correct. Does it include all your income and gains? Are all the appropriate claims to reliefs and allowances in there? If the calculation correctly includes all your information, you can move on to the final stage – ‘Submitting your return’. Click ‘Next’ and go to the ‘Save your return’ page. Stage 5. Submitting your return At the ‘Save your return’ page, we strongly recommend you save a copy of your return on your computer.
Click ‘Save’ and you will see a copy of the completed return.
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Save it to your system by following your software provider’s usual ‘Save’ procedure. Click ‘Print’ and you will also see a copy of the return. Print it by following your software provider’s usual ‘Print’ procedure. When you’ve finished, click ‘Next’ to go to the ‘Submit your return’ page. Now you’re almost ready to send your completed Tax Return to us.
Read this page very carefully. Like a paper return, it asks you to declare that the information you have provided on your Tax Return is correct to the best of your knowledge and belief. Click on the check box in the green area to confirm this is true. A tick will appear. To submit the return click ‘Next’.
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As soon as your return reaches us, you will see a submission receipt page. This tells you that we have received your return safely.
There is a unique submission receipt reference number as your proof of receipt. We recommend that you pay any tax due electronically using our secure payment service. Click on the link ‘How can you pay your tax bill?’ or see our ‘Useful features’ booklet within this guide to find out more.
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