Worked cash in hand for two months last year, saddled with self assessment form

KNiVES · 29 Apr 2012 at 21:10

I worked as a carpenter for two months - my then employer paid cash in hand. Now I have a letter saying it's time for a self-assessment form, which I fully intend to pay except that I can't even answer half the questions without it spitting errors at me - for example losses from this year to the next is basically zero as I only worked for two months yet the damn thing refuses to accept zero for an answer. 'Other business income', 'transportation fees' etc etc all refuse to take zero for an answer which means I can't submit the return.

I know exactly how many weeks I worked for and how much I earned, and I want to pay the income tax (national insurance has been fully paid), yet this horribly contrived and beaurocratic nightmare refuses to let me play ball.

What would be the best thing to do here? Go to CAB?

PistolPete · 29 Apr 2012 at 21:14

At least you worked!!
My wife registered as self employed on the 2nd of this month in preparation for starting to actually do work and she's being hounded for self assessment for 3 days - except she didn't even work!

[TW]Fox · 29 Apr 2012 at 21:17

Whack it in as other income, job done?

KNiVES · 29 Apr 2012 at 21:23

[TW]Fox;21797950 said:
Whack it in as other income, job done?

Whack what in as other income? That was just one example, there are literally dozens of questions that won't accept truthful inputs. It's far from 'job done'.

Ian_Eb · 29 Apr 2012 at 21:30

From memory it does something weird with zeros. I think you leave zero entries blank and it takes them as zero.

mollymoo · 29 Apr 2012 at 21:33

Aren't they zero by default until you enter a value?

Destination · 29 Apr 2012 at 22:08

Thought you leave them blank.

KNiVES · 29 Apr 2012 at 23:21

Ian_Eb said:
From memory it does something weird with zeros. I think you leave zero entries blank and it takes them as zero.

Hikari Kisugi said:
Thought you leave them blank.

You guys are absolute stars. I redid the forms in this way and it all went well without a hitch. Included all information about my time as self-employed, as well as the current employer (took me about half an hour to go through my P45s and P60s), and HMRC has calculated that they actually owe me £273. Score!

Many thanks

Tyron · 29 Apr 2012 at 23:25

Hikari Kisugi said:
Thought you leave them blank.

+1

Vanilla · 29 Apr 2012 at 23:29

KNiVES, where do we send the invoice for our time?

£273

KNiVES · 29 Apr 2012 at 23:31

Give me your paypals I'll send a couple of pennies over.

Nitefly · 29 Apr 2012 at 23:32

I sent my claim in on Friday... I wonder when they'll pay me back, grr.

mjt · 30 Apr 2012 at 00:09

Isn't the whole point of being laid cash in hand to avoid paying tax..?

Aod · 30 Apr 2012 at 00:19

mjt said:
Isn't the whole point of being laid cash in hand to avoid paying tax..?

only if you're dishonest

Otherwise it's simply a way for employers to avoid paperwork hassle.

mjt · 30 Apr 2012 at 00:32

Aod said:
only if you're dishonest

Otherwise it's simply a way for employers to avoid paperwork hassle.

But surely the employer avoids paying tax as well?

pepsilol · 30 Apr 2012 at 00:44

Indeed, cash in hand is code for ....cash? what cash?

KNiVES · 30 Apr 2012 at 03:05

It's not my intention to avoid tax, hence the thread

I don't know why my employer at the time chose not to go the PAYE route but I was working in that role for just seven weeks and that may have something to do with it.

Nitefly said:
I sent my claim in on Friday... I wonder when they'll pay me back, grr.

I am very likely wrong here but it seemed to me that the wording of the form implied that any tax given back to you comes in the form of reduced income tax. But then again they did ask for my bank details in case I was owed any repayments. The HMRC are never really very clear with this sort of thing.