As another tax year is coming to an end, you are hopefully thinking about gathering all your records to send to us at Hive. After all, there are a myriad of benefits in getting your information to us sooner rather than later.
Why you should get your records in early
Here are just some of the advantages of getting your tax return completed earlier in the year:
- You have longer to prepare for your next January tax bill and payments on account.
- If your profits are down, we can prepare and file your tax return before July, and you will have less to pay for your July payment on account.
- Similarly, if you have incorporated during the tax year, this can potentially also decrease your July payment.
- Avoid the rush of trying to gather all the needed records at the last minute.
Xero Ask Checklist
At Hive, to aid you and us with getting everything together, we send our clients a Xero Ask checklist to complete which will be tailored to your current circumstances. For example, a sole trader will be sent a different checklist to a director of a company.
When completing the checklist, you will be asked to provide information that we need to complete your tax return.
The importance of completing the checklist
When filling in the Xero Ask checklist, it is important that you complete it in its entirety and to attach all the relevant documents. We understand that it can be tempting just to zip through and quickly answer ‘yes’ and ‘no’, but ultimately, we will still need this information. The sooner we receive your complete records, the sooner we can start preparing your return and the sooner you will know what your tax liability for next year will be.
Why use a checklist?
Using a checklist helps ensure that we get all the relevant information from our clients. There is information that clients may not realise need to go on their tax returns, for example bank interest. Or a client’s circumstances may have changed during the year. Using a checklist helps us catch these, and if properly filled in, eliminates the waiting time of us having to ask you for additional records. In addition, as it is cloud based, and files can be attached, it makes sending us records so much easier than it may have been in the past.
If you would like Hive to help with your next tax return, please contact us and we will be happy to help.
