Personal tax return
All individuals are subject to personal tax. If your only source of income is from employment you are unlikely to need to complete a tax return as your employer will deduct tax automatically.
A sole trader running their own business must prepare business accounts for each separate business and include them in an annual tax return. As a freelancer or a director of a company you are required to register this fact with HMRC. The deadline for registering as self-employed is 5th October following the end of the tax year. When you register for the first time you’ll get a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number. If you are re-registering you need to use the same UTR the HMRC have already provided.
Your self-assessment return for personal tax is always for the period from 6th April to 5th April of the following year.
The 2017 to 2018 tax year ended on 5 April 2018. The main deadlines are:
- paper tax returns – midnight 31 October 2018
- online tax returns – midnight 31 January 2019
- final payment of any tax due – midnight 31 January 2019