Hi,
I work as a UK employee and have been on PAYE for the past 15 years or so.
A long time ago I estimated my yearly expenses at around £1000, and have always left this amount in as an assumption on returns (or even when I didn't put returns in when filing was not needed and it was done automatically).
Whilst this amount may have been accurate a long time ago, to be honest it may have been much lower in the past years (need to check). And it probably fluctuated over time. Concerned I also don't really have receipts to prove this claim if I'm ever audited. Also, now looking at this, I'm not even sure if I have calculated this correctly as I think the 'job expenses amount' I put in should have been not the actual expenses, but the proportion that I would have paid tax on. So I have a few questions which hopefully you can help me determine whether I need to see a professional or if it's not too hard to figure out what to do:
1.Is the amount to put in for expenses the total expense amount (eg., calculating milage allowance or total of other expenses such as working from home @£4 per day), or does this total need to be multiplied by the tax rate I pay and then entered?
2.Is it worth going back and correcting my past years returns for accuracy? If I lower the amounts, will HMRC look to get their moneys back? If I claimed £1000 more than I should have for the past 15 years, I guess this would add up to quite a bit. Is it worth opening this can of worms and if so how many years of returns do I need to go back to correct?
3.On a separate question, my wife stopped working a year ago. I have never seen that there is a link between her and my tax account, but is it worth looking into tax releif I could get as a result of her not working?
4.My job pension statement states that I'm responsible to make sure pension contributions fall within the right limit and to report these to HMRC. I don't know how to go about this.
The above are just what I know...there may be other topics I don't know and this is why I was asking if you think it's worth getting a tax accountant. Or since I'm on PAYE these issues can be fairly easily addressed by myself. When looking online at options many of these people seem to be focused on 'company services' as opposed to personal situations like mine. Do you know if I should be looking for a specific type of accountant, if you think this is needed?
Thanks very much for your advice.
Fred
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