Filing a tax return? I'd rather eat a doughnut

Don't they look yum, and yes, I'd rather eat a doughnut than file my tax return any day. To make matters worse, I'd forgotten all about it, so, with only 10 days to go, it was a baptism of fire.

Thankfully my filing system has improved within the last couple of years and I had all the documents I needed in more or less 3 or 4 different box files.

It didn't amuse me at the time (but I'm ok with it now) that HMRC sent me the letter in April 2012 and then no reminder until 21st January. I'd missed the 31st October 2012 paper deadline, so my only option was to file online. Actually this turned out to be easy, but how was I to know?!

I took a lot of deep breaths! And then a big sigh of relief when it was all done and dusted.

For help with setting yourself up as a registered writing business, check out my blog post here.

For guidance on the tax return itself, what you can claim and how it's calculated, check out this post.