Help With Form 11 (very confused!)

[Hungryhippo]

Hi everyone, I started my own business with the help of the BTWEA scheme last year and need advice with filling out my first income tax Form 11 for the year 2016.

My business started in November 2016, it relates to web graphic design etc, I work from home. There's not much more to the business as such so much of the form doesn't relate to me but there are many of the basic things that I am quite confused about.

I would prefer not to hire someone to sort this out for me as this only relates to business from 2016 and as my business started in November of 2016, there is very little money involved as the first two months were slow in terms of work. If anyone on here can help or point me in the right direction regarding the following questions I would be very grateful.

Most of my questions relate to the "Self Employed Income" section as the majority of the remainder of form 11 does not relate to me or is fairly straightforward.

EXTRACTS FROM ACCOUNTS
Under this section they want a start and end date, is this simply the start date of my business and the 31st of December as the end date?


INCOME

Sales / Receipts / Turnover
This I assume is the overall money I have made in the timeframe - simple as that?

Receipts from Government Agencies (GMS etc.)

Would this include the social welfare money I still get as part of BTWEA? If not, should that money need to be included anywhere on the form?


Trading Account Items

Purchases ive left this blank as it seems to relate to items bought for resale purposes if I am not mistaken and I bought nothing for the purpose of resale.

This is followed by
Gross Trading Profits - I assume in that case this should also be left blank?


Capital Account and Balance Sheet Items
There is a section in here titled
Cash / Bank (Debit) - (in the helpsheet it is described as follows: "this is cash on hand or in a bank. It should include all deposit accounts, savings
accounts, current accounts, Credit Union accounts, Building Society accounts, etc")

I don't really understand what they're looking for me to put in this field.

 

[Steven Barrett]

Pay someone to do it for you properly. People cannot advise you accurately on an internet forum without seeing all your income streams and expenses. You could probably get a tax return done for a few hundred quid. It will be done properly and save you hours of work to spend on building your business.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie

 

[cremeegg]

EXTRACTS FROM ACCOUNTS
Under this section they want a start and end date, is this simply the start date of my business and the 31st of December as the end date?

Although you can choose your own end date within 12 months of the start date, for simplicity sake 31 Dec is probably best

Sales / Receipts / Turnover
This I assume is the overall money I have made in the timeframe - simple as that?

The total value of the sales you had, not the profit you made.

Receipts from Government Agencies (GMS etc.)

Would this include the social welfare money I still get as part of BTWEA? If not, should that money need to be included anywhere on the form?

The BTWEA is not taxable.

Trading Account Items

Gross Trading Profits

- I assume in that case this should also be left blank?

You should not leave this blank. It equals the sales figures in your case as you have no purchases.

Capital Account and Balance Sheet Items

There is a section in here titled
Cash / Bank (Debit) - (in the helpsheet it is described as follows: "this is cash on hand or in a bank. It should include all deposit accounts, savings
accounts, current accounts, Credit Union accounts, Building Society accounts, etc")

I don't really understand what they're looking for me to put in this field.

This is still the extracts from the accounts of the business, not your personal information.

Ideally you should have a separate business bank account and the balance on that alone goes here.

If you have used a personal account for the business, then the best way to deal with that messy situation is that its the balance within the personal account which relates to the business.

The extracts from the accounts should balance, so that the profits less drawings equal the bank balance, (assuming no other assets).

I must take issue slightly with Steven above. If you have prepared accounts then a few hundred euros for a tax return may be a good idea. However it seems from your questions that you have not prepared accounts, for an accountant to do that properly will cost money before they ever look at the tax return.

Have you prepared accounts using an accounts package, have you got a trial balance.

 

[Taxpert]

If the business is reasonably simple, a tax adviser can prepare simple accounts and do the tax.

Yes, it will cost a little but really you have to ask yourself (a) do you want to risk inadvertent non-compliance (b) possibly missing out on some tax relief, and (c) most importantly why spend hours
" saving" money when you could make more money selling more in your own business?

Maybe get a start up accountant or tax adviser and offer them discounted graphic design service in return for discounted accounts?