Im a self-employed writer, so my tax situation has never fitted easily into the usual boxes. Wanting to conduct my business on the up-and-up*, Ive hired three different accountants since I moved to the UK, and each of them let me down — each in their own expensive way.
Two of them simply charged too much than I could really justify, given how simple my income and expenditures are. I kept a database each year and provided a print-outs to these accountants, so the calculations must have been quite basic, so their fees (sometimes more than £350) seemed excessive.
The other accountant goofed up, vastly underestimating how much I would have to pay one year, and neglecting to warn me I would owe £5,000 in January. When the time came, I got that bill — due within the month. Id been carefully saving and paying into an ethical stakeholder pension, but this blew a cannonball-sized hole in all my plans and borrowing to pay this back set me back for quite a while.
This time around, Im doing my own taxes. The confidence I got from reading Teach Yourself: Understanding Tax for Small Business alone inspired me to look into my account on the HMRC website, and Im glad I did: I discovered an underpayment of £350 and that my address was outdated. Thank you, ex-accountant! Because of this, Ive been able to take care of the shortfall in advance instead of being surprised in July.
Then theres the substance of this book, which is excellent. From the page layout to the plain English its written in, its totally approachable. In just a few places it dips into accountant-speak terminology, and the sections on pension relief and revenue expenses — the two things I was most curious about — were a bit thin and difficult to decipher. But as a general introduction to the subject, it still an excellent work. I feel comfortable now approaching HMRCs forms (which themselves are well-explained), and instead of facing a mountain of intimidating confusion, I now know exactly what I need to learn more about. Then I can file my own return, and keep abreast of exactly whats happening in my businesss financial life.
For all that, Im extremely grateful to the author of this book. For anyone whos self-employed, I would strongly recommend reading this book or your local equivalent and learning the principles it puts forward, even if you plan to use an accountant. Money mistakes — especially those that relate to the government — are the surest way to suck all the fun out of your small business.
*Yes, theres a good argument to be made that the tax system is unjust and unevenly applied (with individuals being hounded to make their tiny payments while corporations and the rich are able to hide or avoid their share). I think of my taxes as protection racket payments: If I pay them, the government leaves me alone.
Oh, sure, Im with the Quakers: I hate the thought that my taxes will pay for war machinery and other despicable wastes of money. In general, I despise the UK government and hold it in the lowest contempt. Even the Scottish government is just marginally better.
The Green Party are the only people who seem to speak anything resembling sense, but like the similarly sensible New Democrat Party in Canada, everyone you speak to seems to agree with their humane, sustainable policies in person, which havent been forged in the hell of corporate interests, yet everyone consistently votes according to some sick binary logic for one of two other parties who consistently prove that they will wind up cheating them or abusing them in the ugliest, most Dickensian of ways.
I just dont understand it.
So I pay my taxes and try to ignore it all until its voting time, when I throw my vote into the wood-chipper and go back to being dismayed. And I get on with my own stuff.
Get involved? No thanks. Politics and direct action arent really my thing. Im not interested enough in policy and law to have a coherent understanding of everything involved. I just know what I believe in, and recognise when someones speaking what feels like truth. Happily, there are some people who do that and are committed to making our government fair and responsible. I vote for them. And in the meantime, I do my own work.
