Self-assessment guidance on the move

North Wales based chartered accountants Pritchett & Co Limited are reminding self-employed individuals that HMRC is moving self-assessment guidance to the GOV.UK website.

The transition of the guidance started on 21 August, meaning that anyone trying to access self-assessment guidance on the HMRC website will be automatically redirected to the new page on GOV.UK

Anything that is no longer needed will be available on the National Archives site.

HMRC's existing online services - the ones individuals need to sign into, such as self- assessment, and Corporation Tax, won't change as a result of transition. But taxpayers will now need to access them from GOV.UK.

James Hastings, director at Pritchett & Co Limited, said: “This transition to GOV.UK is part of the Government Digital Strategy to centralise all government websites”.

“However while self-assessment guidance will move to GOV.UK, taxpayers need to be aware that tax returns and notes won’t be moving to GOV.UK at the same time as the self-assessment guidance goes over. Instead taxpayers will be linked back to the HMRC website until they’re ready for transition over to GOV.UK”.

“In addition to the transition, the current HMRC branding will be dropped and there will be some changes to how the online services look”.

“HMRC state their aim is that the work should have no impact on the taxpayer, and they should not need to do anything but start using the guidance on GOV.UK”.

“The main problem may come when, or if, HMRC move over their self-assessment tax returns, and this is something that taxpayers will need to be aware of before the next self-assessment tax deadline.”

For more information or help with your self-assessment tax return, please contact us at info@pritchettandco.co.uk or call us on 01492 534250.

The author is a director at Pritchett & Co Limited, Chartered Accountants and Chartered Tax Advisers, members of UK200Group with offices throughout the UK and Associates overseas.