7 Tips to Successfully Get Through Self-Assessment Season Unscathed

With the January 31 deadline looming closer, accountants across the UK are having a hectic time keeping up with heavy workloads and tight deadlines. It’s no surprise that stress levels are high, work hours are long, and the number of tax returns is huge. These factors can make it quite challenging to get through the busy tax season.

An airtight strategy can help your practice better manage and mitigate the challenges of the tax season. Here are 7 tips to successfully power through the self-assessment season.

Tips to Power Through Tax Season

1. Get clients to start early: It’s always a good idea to get your tax preparation started as soon as possible. . Ideally, it would help to plan for the next season as soon as the current one ends. Speak to your clients in advance, lay down the ground rules, and clarify your expectations. Use a workflow or software to gather information from clients and conduct follow-ups. The earlier you begin work, the more time you have for double-checking the returns as well as finding and correcting mistakes, if any. Additionally, it’s not a smart idea to constantly take on last-minute clients as it can be highly stressful and tedious.

2. Gather documents in advance: Tax preparation can be tedious and time-consuming. Therefore, it’s essential to have a smooth and efficient process in place to save time and effort for your practice. Set cut-off dates for gathering tax information and documents from your clients. Additionally, set up follow-ups to collect everything on time. An online platform where clients can submit all their tax information can expedite and streamline the entire process. Finally, have a single point of contact for collating all the client information into a database in a systematic manner.

3. Balance the workload: It’s a good idea to keep track of how much tax preparation work has been completed over the year. A practice management tool can be extremely beneficial in this case. Staying on top of your tax returns will help you better prepare for the last-minute rush ahead of the self-assessment deadline. Furthermore, you can set monthly targets for your team to stay on track of their filings.

4. Remind clients about the deadline: It’s a good idea to send clients early reminders about the January 31 deadline. Reminders and nudges will encourage them to submit their self-assessment information as soon as possible, which will help you get started with their returns earlier.

5. Warn clients about penalties: A simple way to get clients to submit their self-assessment information quickly is to remind them about the penalties associated with a late submission. Let your clients know that there’s a penalty of £100 if their tax return is up to three months late, along with additional fines for further delays.

6. Get clients to double-check everything: Any mistakes in the information submitted by your clients can make it tedious to file a smooth and error-free return. Encourage your clients to double-check the information, especially their income and expenses, prior to sharing it with you. Fewer mistakes will ensure you spend less time fixing errors and gathering additional data.

7. Outsource your tax returns: It can be challenging to manage the day-to-day operations of your accounting practice during the tax season. Tax preparation is quite tedious and can take away time from focusing on higher-value tasks like advisory services. Outsourcing your tax returns to a specialist like QXAS can enable you to save costs, gain access to tax expertise, be assured of high-quality tax returns, mitigate risks, gain flexibility, and have more time for strategic initiatives.

Conclusion

Tax season is the busiest time for accountants and practices across the UK. Client delays, heavy workloads, and stringent deadlines can make it exceedingly difficult to smoothly operate your practice. However, by starting early, gathering the necessary information in advance, communicating with your clients, and outsourcing some of your tax returns to a specialist, your practice will be able to better manage and navigate the busy tax season.

Need Help with Your Tax Returns?

QXAS is an expert at tax preparation. We have around 1000 accountants across the UK, USA, Canada & Ireland who can handle all your accounting- and tax-related needs. In fact, last year alone we processed 7,000+ tax returns. Reach out to our tax experts at [email protected] or call +44 208 146 0808 for any of your tax outsourcing queries.