Tax return walkthrough
Fill in your tax return, box by box
The online return has hundreds of boxes; most people need about a dozen. This walkthrough takes the answers from your check and lists only the pages and boxes that apply to you, with the figure to type where we know it and where to find it where we do not. Print it and keep it beside you while you fill in the real return on GOV.UK.
Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to HMRC or to us.
Before you start
Your UTR and Government Gateway login
The 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference from your registration letter, and the user ID and password you set up. Without both you cannot get into the return.
P60, P45 and P11D
One P60 per job or pension you still had on 5 April, a P45 for any you left, and a P11D if you had a company car, medical insurance or other benefits.
Interest and dividend statements
A year-end certificate or statement from each bank, building society and share account. ISAs are not needed.
Business or property records
Your takings and expenses if self-employed, or rent received, expenses and mortgage interest if you let property. Totals are enough; keep the detail for six years.
Pension and Gift Aid figures
Contribution statements from your pension provider and a list of Gift Aid donations. Both change your bill, and both are easy to forget.
State Pension letter
The DWP letter giving your weekly rate, or your Personal Tax Account, which shows the year’s figure.
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Mistakes people make every year
Net instead of gross pension
Box 1 on page TR4 wants what you paid plus the 20% the provider added. Enter the bank figure and you lose a quarter of your relief.
Benefits counted twice
If your employer payrolls benefits, they are already in your P60 pay. Adding the P11D figures as well taxes them twice.
State Pension: paid, not entitled
HMRC wants the amount you were entitled to in the year. Four-weekly payments mean the bank total is usually different.
Mortgage interest in the expenses
On the property page, interest goes in box 44, not boxes 24 to 29. In the expenses it is disallowed and HMRC may ask questions.
Missing tax already paid
Every tax-deducted box you leave empty makes the bill bigger. Pension P60s are the ones people forget.
Waiting for the deadline
Filing in January means the calculation, the bill and any refund all land at once. File in the summer and you can still pay in January.