Previous years tax returns

[nicochick]

I have a client who has not submitted a tax return for the past 3 years! I am not even sure if he has registered as self employed with the IR yet, but he wants to rectify this as soon as possible and has asked me to complete the book-keeping and submit the returns for these past years.

Now how do I go about doing this? Is it possible to obtain these returns from previous years, do I need to ask IR for these? Can I do this without saying who they are for as at this stage he doesn't want to make it too obvious to them that he is behind, he would rather get the returns done and then go to Citizens advice and have them assist him in applying for a payment arrangement for tax his owes (this is what he tells me anyway!)

Any advice would be greatfully received. Thank you.

[Zeno]

Any advice would be greatfully received. Thank you.

Find better clients...

The first thing you need to do is find out if he has registered as self employed with HMRC. If he does not know this would suggest to me that he has not especially HMRC would be on to sending him their most threatening letters & estimates by now (of course, this may be what has prompted his change of heart).

So assuming that he has not, he is going to have to do this first so he can be issued his UTR number to actually file the returns - he can file 2007/2008 & 2008/2009 online but not before this.

Why he wants to get Citizens Advice involved is beyond me, but if it were me, I would dissuade him from idea. Once the returns are lodged and the liabilities known, he can arrange a schedule himself with the Business Support Line.

There will be fines & penalties for this (probably) as well as underpaid NI contributions etc.

Personally, I find clients like this are not worth the effort. It is even likely that you will not actually ever complete these tax returns...

[Richard231]

Find better clients...

Personally, I find clients like this are not worth the effort. It is even likely that you will not actually ever complete these tax returns...

Ditto - you'll get information in drips and drabs. I bet that it'll take you at least 3 months from now to get these returns filed, even then there could well be some 'estimates' on them.

The big question, is why hasn't he already filed them, and what has made him change his mind?

You may also want to consider making sure that he pays you up front - if he's decided that he doesn't need to file his tax returns, what's to say that he'll pay his creditors?

[David Griffiths]

You may also want to consider making sure that he pays you up front - if he's decided that he doesn't need to file his tax returns, what's to say that he'll pay his creditors?


More to the point, if the Revenue are shouting for money from one side and the accountant is shouting for the other, who is going to get listened to first!

[Jaykay]

I agree with all of the above posts. Most of the time this type of client rushes in to sort everything out - money no object, just sort it - I don't care about the tax, I just want to get straight etc. It will not last! Get paid up front and don't send them in until the cheque has cleared!
I keep lots of blank paper tax returns for each year and it is difficult to get earlier year returns from the tax office. You can download older ones from the internet but you have to look a bit. I usually use a return for a different year and overwrite some bits.