Tax Return Made Simple Series – Busting Challenge No.1

The following is a sample extract of an unedited draft chapter of our forthcoming book, Tax Return Made Simple which addresses each of the 12 challenges that stop most business owners from doing their tax return and their accounts.

Challenge 1: Your heart is not in it and/ or you’d rather be doing something else.

Solution: See the benefit of it and start caring about your accounts.

I totally get the whole ‘not wanting to do your accounts as there are far more interesting things to do’. Whilst I like doing accounts, I have days when I’d rather be doing something else too but unfortunately, in terms of boring -v- exciting, sometimes we just have to do the boring stuff.*

For example, honestly how excited are you about brushing your teeth? Most of us, not really, but we do it because we know only too well the consequences of not doing it.

The consequences of not keeping your accounts up to date is something you’re liking facing right now, as you find yourself surrounded in approximately 18 months of receipts, burning the midnight oil and frantically wishing time could go backwards as it ticks dangerous close to filing o’clock. Or when you wake up one day and realise your outgoings are more than your income and you now have to give up the luxury of working for yourself and go back to employment.

Maybe though it’s when you want a mortgage from the bank or a car loan. However, because your accounts are in a mess you miss out on that awesome house or cool car.

Being self-employed has many benefits. You get to choose when you work, how many holidays you take, who you work for and the type of work you do, but like most things, it comes with a trade-off. You may no longer answer to an employer but you do have to answer to yourself, your clients and HMRC (or your equivalent tax authority if outside the UK).

Let’s do something about this together.

I want you to be able to spend time with your kids and/or friends, get that awesome house or car and stay in self-employment but you got to let me (or your accountant) help you. You’ve also got to help yourself.

Think of it like losing weight or getting healthy. The packaging tells you how much fat and calories are in the food and your personal trainer will give you exercises that best fit your personality and lifestyle but you have to discipline yourself with the choice of foods you eat and the exercise you do.

Generally speaking, you are always in control of pilling on the pounds, losing weight or keeping your weight at a steady level. You always have a choice over your actions.

Are you with me?

How do you start caring about something that you really don’t feel like doing, nor have any passion towards whilst there is a bright shiny object over there to play with that looks like much more fun?

End of preview.

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© Helen Monaghan

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* Some people also have a ‘not wanting to pay tax’ program going on in their subconscious belief system (or perhaps its more conscious in today’s political environment!) which holds them back from doing their tax return but we’ll cover that in another chapter.