"google@woodall.me.uk" posted
>Provided you keep reasonable track of your cashflow through the year
>then it shouldn't be that difficult to get your payments on account
>fairly close to what is required and have a small balancing payment or
>credit.
The trouble is that the tax people set these payments according to what
you earned in a period that is now ancient history.
>
>When I was self employed I typically found I had to make a small extra
>balancing payment. Now that I'm employed I typically find I get a small
>tax refund. In neither case were the discrepancies large enough for me,
>or the tax office, to get upset. If you're regularly finding that
>you're getting a large refund via the balancing payment (which might
>not correspond to getting money from the IR because it will be being
>used to reduce your January payment on account) then you need to talk
>to your accountant because something isn't going right with your
>payments on account. If you find your typically making a large extra
>balancing payment then I'd expect the tax office to start sniffing around.
Yes, but that's because tax inspectors are on a nice regular salary and
many of them cannot understand that other people are not so fortunate.
For some of us, our income for any given period in the future is almost
completely unpredictable. We can have a strong first half year, and a
desperate second half. The payment on account requested by the tax
people is the same for both halves; moreover it is based on *last*
year's income.
--
Les
"God will save her, fear you not, be you the men you've been.
Get you the sons your fathers got and God will save the Queen." |