EMTACS
Entertainers and Musicians Taxation & Accountancy Services
69 Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 7LA
Phone 0115-981-5001 Fax 0115-981-5005

Timetables

Self-Assessment came in with the 1996/97 Tax Year and for a decade, things have remained relatively untroubled. Possible changes are coming but they are still a threat rather than a promise, so I'll just stick to the rules as they stand now.

If you start Self-Employment you have 3 months to tell the Revenue of your plans and if you fail to do so, you're likely to be fined £100. The quickest way to deal with this is to ring the Self-Employment helpline on 0845-9154515, who will walk you through registration - it's very easy.

At the end of any tax year in which you happen to be self-employed, the Revenue will send you a Tax Return. This Return has to be sent to them by midnight on Jan 31 or again, they will fine you £100. Any payments due in January should be there by that date, or the Revenue will charge you interest at around 6.5% (simple interest). The same also applies to any tax that is due in July.

If you owe the Revenue tax for any year and it isn't settled by the following Feb 28, then they will apply a Surcharge of 5% of any tax that is still owing. This is fairly unfriendly, so you should always try to get old tax cleared up by then. Making the payments on account late don't matter - it's only the old tax bills that attract the Surcharge.

If the Tax Return still isn't in by 31 July then the Revenue will fine you a further £100 (well you have had 16 months by now).

So when is good to send us figures? Well you should be able to manage this 2-3 months after the year-end and that seems sensible. The problem is that people dislike doing it as a job and thus put it off for as long as is reasonably possible, thereby making it harder, messier and more expensive but then that's human nature for you!

If we don't get raw material until a couple of months before January then we (a) can't guarantee to get the form in on time and (b) will probably charge you a bit more to compensate for the late nights and candle-burning that we have to do as a result. So - send early and we'll all have a better life.

As I mentioned above, the Revenue appear to be on the verge of moving their goalposts and shortening their deadlines with Returns having to be filed by the end of September unless filed online (as we do), in which case you can have until the end of November. Most accountants are up in arms about this but the Revenue seem to have made their decision. Quite how we respond to this remains to be seen - there isn't a lot we can individually do. As the Revenue contend, most countries only give people 6 months or less, but there's no doubt it will change our business quite drastically.