Tax advice

Self Assessment tax returns are a key task in every self-employed person’s to-do list. In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about completing your tax return for HMRC, so you know exactly what income you need to declare.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will change how freelancers keep records and declare their income from April 2024. That might seem a long way off, but it's important to be prepared—here's our guide to everything you need to know.

Do you know when you need to be signed up for Making Tax Digital for VAT and Income Tax? This post contains all the important dates you need for your diary so you can be prepared well ahead of time.

Whilst the tax return for work you’re doing now may not be due for months, the beginning of the new tax year is the perfect time to build good tax habits. So, in this blog, we’ve outlined four ways you can make this tax year the easiest yet.

The start of a new tax year is a big day in the self-employed calendar. So, in this blog, you'll find seven key things you can do to ensure that the 2022/23 tax year is smooth sailing for your business.

If you're a VAT-registered freelancer, you need to sign up for Making Tax Digital for VAT by April 2022. And all freelancers earning more than £10,000 will have to sign up for MTD for Income Tax by 2024—read our guide to find out what you need to know.

Making Tax Digital for VAT will change the way freelancers keep VAT records and submit VAT returns to HMRC—but there's no need to panic! Here's everything you need to know to make sure you're prepared and ready to tackle MTD with confidence.

Freelancers: make “January panic” a thing of the past with our quick-start guide to doing your Self Assessment tax return. We've broken the process down into bite-sized chunks—so you can tick that job off your to-do list in half the time!

From Self Assessment deadlines to payment on account dates, we’ve listed all of the key tax dates that you need to bear in mind when you're self-employed as a sole trader. Pop them in your diary to ensure you're always on top of your finances!

If you're self-employed as a sole trader, here’s a summary of the key self-employed tax allowances, income tax and VAT rates, and national insurance contributions you need to know for the 2022/23 tax year.

On March 23rd 2022, the Chancellor delivered the Spring Statement to Parliament. In this blog, we’ve listed what was announced, and how each measure will impact self-employed people operating as sole traders in the year ahead.

The UK government has outlined plans to increase National Insurance contributions in the 2022/23 tax year, as part of the new Health and Social Care Levy. Below, we've summarised what these changes involve, and how they will affect you as a self-employed person.

“I had an argument with my wife and went to Italy for 5 years” is the perfect example of an excuse that HMRC *won’t* accept for a late tax return. So what does count as a reasonable excuse? And is it ever okay not to submit a tax return? We explain all in this blog.

Are you ready for Making Tax Digital, or still figuring out what that means? This post contains everything you need to know to prepare for the new system and simplify your tax admin—so you can focus on the stuff that really matters.

Payments on account are designed to spread the cost of the upcoming year’s tax bill, but the assumptions used to work out your payments might not be quite right if your business has been impacted by the pandemic.

If you have a student loan or income from other sources, such as employment salary or rental income, this may affect what you’ll need to pay or the tax rate applied to your self-employment income. Here's what you need to know.

Once you’ve got your income, expenses and any other allowances and adjustments organised in Coconut, you’re ready to fill in your tax return. You'll most likely be completing your Self Assessment online through the Government Gateway—so this article lays out what you can expect from the process.

Adjustments in Coconut are a way for you to account for any income or expenses that you haven’t already captured in your transactions. This could be extra income outside of your Coconut account, cash expenses, or work from home (WFH) allowance and mileage.

To ensure that all of the information in your Coconut tax return summary is right, it’s important to take the time to check that all of your transactions are categorised correctly. This helps us determine which transactions fall into income or expenses.

What is the UK's 'Rent a Room' Scheme, who can make the most of it, and do you have to declare the rental income on your tax return? We've summarised the key points in this article.

We know that doing your Self Assessment can be a bit overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be that way! This guide will show you how to use the Coconut app to get to the right numbers for your tax return in six simple steps.

Find out how the £1,000 income trading allowance from HMRC works and if you can use it with our helpful guide.

How and when to file your sell assessment form and complete you tax returns with HMRC if you're self employed or operating as a sole trader.

Take a look at the latest sole trader tax rates for the 2021/22 as well as our advice on how to prepare for the new tax year.

We asked 500 self-employed people how they feel about saving for tax - take a look at the results and see how Coconut can help you to save for tax soon.

Understand the VAT Cash Accounting Scheme. Who it's for, how to qualify and what it could mean for you and your business.

Worried about filing your taxes as a freelancer? In this article, we’ll show you how to plan ahead so you can nail your self-assessment like a pro.