CIS | Ealing
Filing Your Own Tax Return in Ealing? Here's What DIY Returns Usually Leave Behind
There is a particular kind of pride in doing your own tax return, and plenty of Ealing trades manage it every January. The return goes in, a few hundred pounds comes back, job done. Then a mate on the same money mentions his £3,200 refund, and the question lands: what is he claiming that you are not?
The five things DIY returns miss most
- Mileage. The single biggest omission. Trades hopping between W5 and W13 jobs, the Old Oak corridor and the merchants routinely drive 8,000 to 12,000 business miles. At 45p per mile, leaving it off the return abandons £3,600 to £5,400 of deductions.
- Capital kit bought mid-year. The table saw, the trestles, the breaker: full deduction in the year of purchase for most kit, frequently never claimed.
- The boring recurring costs. Phone share, public liability insurance, CSCS renewal, software, bank charges. Individually small, collectively hundreds.
- Materials fronted on small jobs and reimbursed informally or absorbed into the price.
- Use of home for the evening quoting and paperwork every self-employed trade actually does.
The part most people do not know: amendment
A filed return is not carved in stone. You can amend a Self-Assessment within 12 months of its filing deadline, and claim overpayment relief further back in the right circumstances. In practice that means the disappointing refund from last year can often be reopened and corrected. Roughly half the new clients we take on in Ealing get money back from a year they thought was finished.
£600 became £4,600
A West Ealing carpenter doing first and second fix plus loft conversions had self-filed for years, claiming tools and little else. Rebuilding the current year properly and amending the previous one produced £4,600 across the two, against the £600 he had been averaging on his own.
Check what you might be sitting on with the refund calculator, or see CIS accountant in Ealing for the local service.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I claim more, am I more likely to be investigated?
Legitimate, evidenced expenses are not a risk factor; they are how the system is designed. What attracts attention is inconsistency and invented round numbers. We file with an evidence trail behind every figure.
How do you amend a return I filed myself?
With your authorisation we access the filed return, recompute it with the full expense picture, and submit the amendment online. HMRC repays the difference, usually within weeks.
I claimed the £1,000 trading allowance instead of expenses. Was that wrong?
It is only right when real expenses are under £1,000, which is rare for a working trade. The amendment window lets us switch to actual expenses where that pays more.
My records for last year are thin. Can you still rebuild it?
Almost always. Bank statements, deduction statements, supplier history and diary or job records reconstruct a defensible expense picture. Thin records reduce precision, not possibility.
Is your fee worth it if my refund is small?
We tell you before we file. The free call includes an honest estimate; if professional filing would not beat DIY by a clear margin, we say so. That honesty is why trades send their mates.
What about starting on Old Oak Common? Anything special?
Get verified before your first invoice so you are on 20 per cent not 30, and start the mileage log on day one. Long infrastructure engagements make both habits very valuable.
Can I keep filing myself but pay you to check it?
Yes. A pre-filing review is a cheaper service that catches the worst leaks, and many DIY filers upgrade to full service once they see the difference.
Software says my return is fine. Why is it still underclaimed?
Software checks arithmetic, not completeness. It cannot know about the van miles or the breaker you never typed in. The gap is in the inputs, and that is where we work.
Mate getting triple your refund on the same money?
Send us your last return and this year's records. Free 15-minute call, an honest gap analysis, fixed fee if we can do better.
Or email info@yourtaxhelp.co.uk | CIS accountant in Ealing
General guidance only. Not personal tax advice. Contact us for advice specific to your situation. Figures relate to the 2025/26 tax year unless otherwise stated.