If you’re self-employed, it’s likely you’re familiar with the good old self-assessment system in place in order to fill in your tax returns. Being ahead of the game is important to make sure your finances (and the financial health of your business) are in a good place.
Being organised and ahead of the curve is a great way to make sure that you don’t need to stress or worry about your financial admin, whilst trying to operate a business.
Many freelancers and self-employed professionals choose to hire an accountant to look after this side of their business – so that they can keep their focus on the running of the day to day business. Alternatively, you might be someone who wants to manage your money yourself, seeing how the tax system works and what you could be doing to save costs.
How to stay on top of things
Keeping a spreadsheet or using a tool such as Quickbooks can help you keep on top of what your earnings are for each month and how much tax you need to put back safely for when it’s time to do your self-assessment.
Some people prefer to put money back from each paycheck every month for tax purposes and others prefer to pay the tax amount outright at the end of each tax year.
Useful Resources
There are a number of useful resources to help guide you through the self-assessment process. We’ve listed these below:
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/work/self-employment/how-to-fill-in-a-self-assessment-tax-return
https://www.money.co.uk/guides/a-beginners-guide-to-self-assessment
https://www.unbiased.co.uk/life/small-business/self-assessment-tips
https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns
https://www.gosimpletax.com/blog/completing-your-self-assessment-guide/