Personal tax return

A personal tax return is a form that you as a taxpayer sometimes have to submit to HMRC to declare your income and how much tax you should pay (or sometimes get back from HMRC as a tax refund).

When you need to file a personal tax return:

• If you’re employed and earned over £150,000 per year (until 2024/25)
• If you earned over £1,000 from self-employment
• If you made over £2,500 from renting out a property

There are lots of other reasons why you’d need to file a personal tax return. Here’s a complete list.

If you need to file a tax return, the deadline is January 31st of the year following the tax year in which you earned that income. The UK tax year is from April 6th to April 5th.

For example, if you were self-employed between April 6th 2024 to April 5th 2025, you have until January 31st 2026 to file a tax return.

You can file a tax return in several ways:

• Send a paper tax return to HMRC
• Go to HMRC’s website and submit one online yourself
• Have use a personal accountant to file for you
• Use a tax return service like TaxScouts (hello!)