Self Assessment checklist – make sure you're prepared
Submitting your Self Assessment tax return doesn’t have to be stressful! Here’s a helpful checklist to make sure you’re ready to submit yours before the deadline.
What’s the Self Assessment tax return deadline?
If you didn’t send an online tax return last year, give yourself up to 20 working days to register first, so make sure you don’t leave it until the last minute!
The deadline for submitting a paper tax return passed on 31 October. The deadline for online tax returns and to pay the tax that you owe is midnight on 31 January 2022.
Your Self Assessment tax return checklist
Make sure you have everything you need to submit your tax return with this handy checklist:
▢ Check your earnings: If you earned under £1,000 in the last tax year you don’t need to submit a tax return. You still need to inform HMRC that you don’t need to submit one.
▢ Gather your invoices (income) and receipts or transitions (expenses): If you’ve uploaded these to your accounting software throughout the year then you can relax! If you haven’t, then now is the time to ensure you have all the records you need.
▢ Make sure your accounting software is up to date: Record all your transactions and invoices for the tax year.
▢ Know your allowable expenses: You can only claim expenses that are directly related to your business. Read our guide for more information on what you can and can’t claim.
▢ Calculate your income and expenses: The easiest way is by using accounting software with an automated profit and loss report. If you aren’t using one, you’ll need to calculate this manually.
▢ Keep the right records: It’s really important to keep the right records for the type of business that you run. Read our guide on record keeping to find out what you need to store.
▢ Submit your Self Assessment tax return: Submit your Self Assessment tax return online with HMRC. You can follow the step by step instructions and use the figures in profit and loss report to help.
▢ Pay your taxes: After submitting your return you need to pay your taxes to HMRC before the deadline.
▢ Record your payment: Don’t forget to record your tax payment in your accounting!
Need some help?
If you need help submitting your Self Assessment tax return then you can check out our help guides for more information on how to use your profit and loss report to submit your return.
If you would like to work with an accountant for help with your accounting then you can get in touch with one through our Find an accountant page.
Prepare for your Self Assessment tax return with Bokio
If you’re not already using software, consider making the switch. When you upload information continuously over the year you’ll already have everything you need to make your submission quick and stress free.
By recording transactions, uploading receipts, and managing invoicing and expenses in the same place you won’t have to search for information when it’s time to submit your Self Assessment tax return.
Bokio accounting software has lots of helpful features to help you prepare for your Self Assessment tax return, like bank feeds to make sure you don’t miss transactions, and reports to give you an overview of your finances. We also have integrated invoicing and much more to help you manage your finances.
Our time saving software makes it easy to do your accounting so you can get back to running your business.
