tax-return-chessington

FILLED IN YOUR SELF-EMPLOYED TAX RETURN CORRECTLY… OR NOT SURE?

A survey from accounting software provider Intuit QuickBooks asked 1,010 self-employed people across the UK what they would rather do instead of file their tax return.

Of the 11.6 million people who have to complete the self-assessment tax return:

  • one in five people (2.4 million) said they would rather give a speech to 100 strangers
  • one in five people (2.3 million) would rather spend a night in a haunted house
  • one in five people (2.2 million) said they’d rather hold a tarantula for a minute
  • one in seven people (1.7 million) would rather get trapped in a lift
  • one in eight people (1.4 million) said they would rather jump out of a plane

Other findings from the research include:

  • one in two people (5.3 million) worry they haven’t filled in their tax return correctly
  • two in five people (4.5 million) feel stressed about doing their tax return
  • one in four people (2.6 million) will complete their tax return in the final two weeks
  • Women take twice as long as men (12.3 hrs vs. 6.7 hrs) to complete their tax return

It doesn’t have to be that scary. With QuickBooks Self-Employed, it’s possible to take pictures of receipts in the app. The software will then automatically categorise your expenses, and when it comes to January, allow you to prepare your self-assessment without the fuss. It’s a user friendly app and doesn’t have all the technical accounting options required by accountants – but it does integrate with our scaled up version with all the bells and whistles.

Other innovative features in the QuickBooks Self-Employed software include automatic mileage tracking within the app, and the ability to integrate with your bank account to automatically keep track of invoices and scheduled payments from clients and customers.

QuickBooks Self-Employed also includes QB Assistant, a conversational chatbot that combines data-driven insights and natural language processing to unearth valuable insights for people who work for themselves.

Shaun Shirazian, Head of Product, Europe at QuickBooks, said: “The self-employed have more than enough to worry about between keeping on top of their cash flow, drumming up new customers and balancing their work and private lives. Self-assessment shouldn’t be another stress to add to the list. Using software like QuickBooks Self-Employed, all your financial information is at your fingertips, ready to easily submit to HMRC.”

The research, conducted by Opinium from 5-15 January 2019, also revealed young people were twice as likely as older people to submit their returns at the last minute (6% of 18-34-year-olds submit in the final 48 hours vs. 3% of those aged 55+). One in 100 people (110,000) were already planning to file their return after the 31 January deadline.

 

Content from www.businessleader.co.uk