Tax return day has come and hopefully there aren’t too many of you who will be rushing to get their files in order.
Tax returns are a necessary evil but leaving them as late as possible can cost you valuable time away from your business and perhaps fines if things don’t go as smoothly as you would like. Businesses in both the U.K. and Ireland are required to submit returns on October 31st. Below we outline what you need to have in order depending on where you’re doing business.
Doing business in the U.K.
The 2013 to 2014 tax year ended 5th April 2014 in the U.K. The main deadlines that businesses need to be aware of are:
31st October 2014 (midnight) – Paper based tax returns are due
31st January 2015 (midnight) – Online tax returns are due
31st January 2015 (midnight) – Final payment of any tax for 2013 – 2014 due
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Doing business in Ireland
The Irish tax year runs from 1st January – 31st December. There are deadlines to consider for both the last tax year and the current one for businesses in Ireland.
31st October 2014 – Pay preliminary tax for current tax year
31st October 2014 – File tax return and self-assessment for the previous tax year
31st October 2014 – Pay any balance of tax due for the previous year
Paper based returns are to arrive to Revenue on or before 31st October while online submissions using the ROS portal are to be completed by 31st October.
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Moving to doing your tax returns online can be a positive and lucrative step for small businesses. For those in the U.K., it means not having to tear their hair out over their tax returns on 31st October as online returns aren’t due until 31st January.
Doing your returns online is less time consuming and you don’t have to worry about making sure that your records will arrive on time if you’re relying on post. Here at Big Red Cloud we believe that the people involved in small businesses should take advantage of online tools such as this to make their lives easier. Time is a valuable commodity to all in business but it could be argued that it is more valuable to startups and smaller businesses who don’t have the people resources that larger organisations may have. The last thing you want is for your tax return to end up affecting your customer service or other areas of your day to day operation. Online tools provided by the HMRC and Revenue.ie are there precisely for these reasons.
Make a better business decision for your small business and move to doing your tax returns online.
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Related: VAT guide for small businesses
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Big Red Cloud Book of Accounting Blunders
Here at Big Red Cloud we’ve put together an interesting compilation of bookkeeping errors from some of the biggest names in business. These are 10 lessons that startups and SMEs alike can learn when it comes to running their businesses.
