Due to the nature of the tax system, we cannot provide information covering each eventuality within the tax guide. With tax matters, everyone is different, and not all questions listed below may appear on your return. Where your circumstances are more complex than just standard employment and self employment, do check for professional assistance to complete your return.
On this section, you can tailor your tax return to your own personal circumstances.
We’ve listed examples of how some of these sections work, however it is possible that your own circumstances are different to others, therefore for assistance, press the ‘Help’ buttons on the Government return for assistance.
This article follows the current ‘pages’ listed within the Tailor Your Return section of your Tax Return.
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Were you an employee (or director or office holder) or agency worker in the year to 5 April 2020?
Was your turnover more than £1,000 in total from all self-employments?
This is the self employment question. Turnover is income or money received before any deductions.
Were you in a partnership?
A partnership is where you and another individual start up a business and run where you are both equal partners. This means any income or expenses may be shared equally.
For the purposes of your self employment as a Slimming World consultant you are not in a partnership, and should select NO.
Did you receive income from UK land and/or property (including income from foreign property) over £1,000?
If you rent out any property this may be an option for you. There are a lot of different circumstances for this, therefore if you do receive any rental income for any purpose, click the ‘help’ button for guidance on if you need to declare this.
If you received any foreign income, do you need to complete the foreign section?
Again this may only apply to certain individuals, and therefore click the ‘help’ button on the tax return for examples. This section is likely to change following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, therefore check the guidance for this.
If you disposed of any chargeable assets, or had any chargeable gains, or you wish to claim an allowable loss, or make any other claim or election, do you need to complete the Capital Gains section?
Capital Gains tax comes in when you have assets over £48k (2019/20) which are disposed of. It’s unlikely as a consultant that this is the case for you, however if it is, please check the guidance provided as this is a complex section.
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Did you receive any interest, for example, from UK banks, UK building societies, UK unit trusts (or untaxed foreign interest up to £2,000)?
This is straight forward, if you received any interest from a UK account, you can declare this here. If foreign interest payments were received, this falls into the foreign section if it was above £2k.
Did you receive any dividends, for example, UK companies, authorised unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, foreign companies (up to £300)?
If you have shares in any companies and received dividends you can declare these here. You may need the figures for these later.
Did you receive any UK pensions, annuities or state benefits, for example, state pension, occupational pension, retirement annuity, Incapacity Benefit?
If you received any of the above items, you must choose YES here.
Did you or your partner (if you have one) get Child Benefit during the year 2019-20 (this applies if someone else gets Child Benefit for a child who lives with you and pays you for the child’s upkeep)?
Did you receive any other UK income, for example, employment lump sums, share schemes, life insurance gains?
There is a long list of ‘other income’ and you can press the Help button on the page to view the full list. If any apply, choose YES.
Have you made any income tax losses in the year 2019-20?
If you have, choose YES and you’ll be prompted for information later – however this does not relate to information which should be on a supplementary page, such as self employment income and expenses which fall into. different section. If those are the only losses, select NO.
Are you liable to pension savings tax charges or have you received payments from overseas pension schemes?
This is another query which is relevant only to certain individuals. Press Help to view the list/guidance before selecting the option relevant to you.
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Did you make contributions towards a personal pension or retirement annuity? This does not include payments you make to your employer’s pension scheme, which are deducted from your pay.
This is asking if you paid into a personal pension / retirement annuity. If you were employed during the year and only paid into an employer’s scheme, you should choose NO.
The reason for this question is that payments made through your payslips when employed are already deducted from your salary, therefore HMRC have to calculate additional items if it was a personal pension.
Did you give to charity?
This relates to Gift Aid which can be added to charitable donations. However, you need to be a tax payer to allow for Gift Aid to be eligible.
For example, if you complete your tax return and have made a loss, and expect a refund from HMRC as a result, you may not be a tax payer, and therefore wouldn’t be eligible for Gift Aid claimed donations.
If you, or your spouse or civil partner, were born before 6 April 1935 do you want to claim married couple’s allowance?
If this is applicable, choose YES. Otherwise, choose NO.
Do you want to claim other tax reliefs and deductions, for example, community investment tax relief, venture capital trust shares, maintenance / alimony payments?
If this is applicable, choose YES. Otherwise, choose NO.
Have you had any 2019-20 Income Tax refunded or off-set by us or JobCentre Plus?
If this is applicable, choose YES. Otherwise, choose NO.
Did you have a tax adviser?
A Tax Advisor is not necessarily a bookkeeper or accountant, these are usually specialist individuals. For example, using guidance provided through this tax guide or Malgra does not constitute and is not a tax advisor, therefore that would be NO.
If you do have a tax advisor, and they helped you complete your tax return, select YES. You may be asked for their details later.
Have you used one or more tax avoidance schemes?
This may seem like a trick question, but HMRC ask this as they would then start the required checks if you did, and select YES. It’s better to declare than be suddenly investigated and found to have used such a scheme. Hopefully you didn’t, therefore select NO.
Do you need to disclose any income from disguised remuneration avoidance schemes? If you received any disguised remuneration loans and they have not been fully repaid or you still owe tax on an amount outstanding on 5 April 2019, select “Yes”
Again this is a follow up to the previous question but using different language. You’re likely to choose NO.
Are you acting in capacity on behalf of someone else?
If you are completing the return based on a number of key reasons, select YES here, otherwise choose NO. This is usually when someone is deceased.
Next steps
Upon ‘customisation’ of your return, you’ll be returned to the main menu to complete your relevant sections chosen above.