Many people find the tax return form daunting. But most people actually only need to complete a small number of the boxes on the return.

The basic tax return has 8 pages but HMRC may add extra pages for you to report particular kinds of income or gains, depending upon your own circumstances. For example, if you are self-employed, there should be an extra four pages for information about your business income and expenses. If you have income from abroad, there are special ‘Foreign’ pages to complete, and so on.

If you submit a return on paper, it is up to you to ask for any extra sections you need. When you get your tax Return, you will also receive a booklet called “How to fill in your Tax Return”, which will list the extra pages available. You can download additional pages from here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/forms/content.htm.

If you have submitted a tax return on-line in the previous year, HMRC will normally send you a ‘notice to file a tax return’. This letter reminds you that you need to submit a tax return. You will be expected to file on-line; if you want to file a paper tax return you will need to ask HMRC.

HMRC sometimes issue a ‘short tax return’ with only 4 pages to some people whose tax affairs are straightforward. You cannot ask for a short return and it is not available from the HMRC website. If you have been sent a short tax return but it is not appropriate for your circumstances, you should ask HMRC for a full tax return. This might be, for example, because you are a company director, have foreign income, have received redundancy payments of over £30,000, have made capital gains or have complex tax affairs. In such cases it is important that you ask for a full return, or you may be unable to declare all your income correctly and may pay the wrong amount of tax.

Each tax year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April. The tax return covering the year ended 5 April 2011 is sometimes called the ’2011 tax return’. The deadline for sending your completed your tax return back to HMRC depends on whether you submit a paper return (31^st October) or file it on-line (31^st January).

The key steps to filling in the tax return are:

• If you use a paper return, check you have all the pages you need. If not, ask HMRC for the pages or download them from http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/forms/content.htm
• Collect the information you need for each different type of income or gain – if you do this throughout the year it can save you a lot of time.
• Decide whether you want to complete the paper tax return, or file on the internet
• Fill in the sections on the form relevant to you – use the “How to fill in your Tax Return” booklet to help you.
• If you are unsure about how to treat any item, it is best to get advice (for a list potential advisers, see Sources of information and advice page)
• When you have completed the return, sign it and send it to HMRC (or file it online).
• Pay the tax due, as calculated on your Tax Return (including any ‘payments on account’ for the next tax year).

Note: You will get a guidance notes (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/worksheets/SA150.pdf)  with your tax return but you can also find helpful information here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/complete-tax-return.htm

The main thing to remember is that you only need to complete the sections relevant to your personal circumstances.  The following sections will explain what records you will need, and what information you might need to put onto your tax return, how to calculate tax due and how to pay it and submit your return. They are not a complete guide to filling in your tax return and you may need to take advice in your specific circumstances. In view of the size of penalties for mistakes and errors, it is important to take advice if there if there are items on your tax return about which you are not confident. If you take advice from HMRC it is a good idea to record the date, time and advice given, as well as the name of the person you spoke to.