If you are self-employed, or are retired and have an income that is not taxed at source… and are reasonably digitally savvy… then here is HMRC’s advice on doing your income tax returns on line.

For many self-employed workers, Self Assessment has long been the way to declare tax liabilities. But it also the way for pensioners to let HMRC know about any tax you may owe on income other than your pensions, or if your State Pension was your only source of income and was more than your personal allowance. Here is HMRC’s helpful advice for both groups who would like to use their online service.

The number of self-employed people aged 65 and over has more than doubled in the past five years. On top of that, many retirees have incomes other than pensions (which are normally taxed at source). For the moderately tech-savvy within both these groups, filing your returns online is a cost-effective and relatively straightforward route – avoiding the cost of professional fees.

Self Assessment has only been in place since 1996 and was created to streamline the tax collection process for those with any untaxed income who need to declare and pay tax on it. Back then, the online service we know today did not exist (it was only launched in 2000) now 97% of Self Assessment filers submit their tax returns online.

The Self Assessment population is rising with more than 12 million people expected to file a return each year. About five to six million of those customers leave it until January to file their returns and this can cause delays both for HMRC and customers… and so they encourage customers to beat the rush by filing early. Encouragingly, almost 68,000 people filed their 2023-24 tax return online on 6 April 2024, the first day of the new tax year!

Smoothing the online journey

The online service has evolved since 2000, introducing new services or enhancements with the user in mind. Some of the customer-focused changes include:

• Using pre-populated forms to save customers’ time inputting their details
• allowing customers to tailor their tax return, so they only need to complete relevant parts
• in-built help functions with access to videos or guidance to support customers every step of the way

HMRC offers a wide range of resources to help customers with their Self Assessment on GOV.UK and YouTube. It’s also very popular: there were 48 million page views on GOV.UK and 1.4 million YouTube views during the most recent Self Assessment peak.

• the most popular GOV.UK page was the Self Assessment checker tool, which will help you decide each year if you need to complete a tax return.
• YouTube videos include how to register and how to stop Self Assessment.

In February 2024, HMRC launched an improved online appeal process for Self Assessment. It enables customers to appeal against late filing or late payment penalties.

There’s an app for that…

Millions of people use the HMRC app each year to manage and interact with HMRC to meet their tax obligations and the app was downloaded 3.6 million times in 2023-24. The HMRC app allows customers to:

• set reminders so they don’t forget to pay their tax bill
• access the digital assistant through the app
• find their Unique Taxpayer Reference
• claim a refund if they have paid too much tax
• pay their tax bill using the app

HMRC also recognises that some customers may need extra support and there is a specialist dedicated service to help them.

Getting started You’ll find all you need to use Self Assessment digitally on GOV.UK. You can set up your Government Gateway account, register for Self Assessment, complete and submit the Self Assessment forms, and set up a payment plan to pay any tax owed.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash