Frequently asked questions

SA Return offers a secure and easy to use online service to enable customers to file their UK self-assessment tax return for the 2010-2011 tax year. More information is provided under "Our Service" and terms and conditions.

The financial and tax affairs of a limited number of people may not fit well with the fully online SA Return service.

For example, the service is not suitable for people with complex Capital gains and service eligibility is limited to customers that have acquired a capital asset in a single transaction and disposed of the asset in a separate single transaction.

In addition, the SA Return service is only suitable for people that have been self-employed during the relevant tax year if their turnover does not exceed £68,000 with Capital Allowances.

If you are unsure whether SA Return is suited to their particular circumstances, you should submit a query via email to info@sareturn.com or using the "Contact us" message facility on web site before submitting your tax return data and paying for the service.

SA Return is currently only available to individuals who are employees of selected companies that have established a business relationship with us and where the customer was employed by that company during the 2010-2011 tax year.

If you are an employee of such a company, you should have received a marketing flyer about our service and you will be eligible. Unfortunately, the service is not currently available to colleagues, friends or family members of employees.

In order to use our service we need to collect some information about you at registration. This includes key information that HMRC requires in order to accept any self-assessment tax return submission.

Before you register you must have the following information available:

• your National Insurance Number and
• your Unique Taxpayer Reference ("UTR") number.

Your UTR is provided by HMRC and comprises ten digits that are sometimes followed by the letter 'K', for example 1234567890K.

You can find your UTR on correspondence from HMRC, such as a previous Tax Return, Notice to complete a Tax Return or a Statement of Account. If you don't have a UTR you can contact your Tax Office and ask for your UTR, which can only be sent in the post to your home address. We cannot submit your return to HMRC without both of these items and you will not be able to complete registration without providing them.

You will need to answer a series of simple online questions about your other incomes, taxes paid, and tax reliefs that you are claiming. These questions require only a Yes or No answer. For each question that you answer "Yes" you will need to supply some supporting information either by keying; "copying and pasting"; or by uploading electronic copies of relevant documents. Our system will prompt you for the types of information and documents required depending on your answers to the initial questions.

Examples of the types of information required are:

• If you have been issued with one or more P2 PAYE Coding Notices by HMRC for the 2010-2011 tax year, you should upload electronic copies of these.
• If you have been employed by other companies, during the tax year you will need to provide information on your earnings; tax and national insurance paid; and any taxable benefits received. The system will prompt you to upload standard forms: P60, P45 and P11D.
• If you have received a state pension, you should provide a copy of your relevant pension statement.
• If you have a property that you rent out, SA Return need to know about rental income and about any allowable expenses that you want to offset against this income.
• If you wish to claim tax relief for charitable contributions they will need to know about these.

As our service is fully online we do need you to submit electronic copies of some key documents and you will not be able to submit your return without these.

If you do not have either electronic copies of the documents required or access to a scanner, you could take a photograph of each page of the document using a mobile phone or digital camera for which you are able to save files to your computer. The majority of the documents required are one page forms and provided the document images are clearly readable we should be able to use your photo image files.

It will also help us if you save the image files with meaningful file names as "P45 Joe Bloggs.jpg".

Please note that we can only accept JPG, PNG and PDF files that are smaller than 5 megabytes each.

If your camera creates larger files, you may be able to reduce these by lowering the picture resolution or taking photos in black and white mode.

SA Return is very competitively priced from only £200.

Unlike other services, our charges are fully transparent and apply as a flat rate for all tax returns that are eligible and suitable for the online service (See the questions above on suitability and eligibility and the terms and conditions of use).

Once you have completed and submitted your return information and paid for the service, we would typically expect to supply you with your draft tax return for review and signature within 14 days.

Once you have electronically signed and approved your return we would expect to submit it to HMRC within one to two working days.

SA Return's tax accountant will complete a compliant tax return for you based on the data we collect directly from your designated SA Return-partnered employer and any additional data that you provide.

The return will be created using HMRC-approved software.

The tax accountant will raise queries on any apparent anomalies or gaps in your data and we will request clarification or further data from you as required.

You will be provided with a DRAFT copy of your tax return in an HMRC format for review and online approval. Any queries or concerns will be dealt with and a revised tax return created for your further review and approval before submission to HMRC.

SA Return cannot offer any advice on this matter. HMRC publish general criteria specifying who must complete a tax return and they write to people whom they consider meet these criteria.

We recommend that if you are unsure whether you should submit a tax return, you check with HMRC. Information is available online at www.hmrc.gov.uk and also on the UK government information portal at www.direct.gov.uk.

The HMRC deadline for electronic tax return submissions covering the 2010-2011 tax year is 31 January 2012. Late submissions will attract an automatic penalty from HMRC of £100.