The situation
A freelance designer had comfortably filed her own Self Assessment for several years. She was organised, but was claiming only the obvious costs and had never looked at reliefs, so her bills always felt heavy.
The problem
She was missing a range of allowable expenses, from use of home and software subscriptions to a share of her phone and equipment. As a higher rate taxpayer paying into a pension, she had also never claimed the extra pension tax relief she was entitled to.
What we did
- Reviewed her costs. We went through her spending and captured every allowable expense she had been missing.
- Claimed her pension relief. We claimed the higher rate relief on her pension contributions, and reviewed whether earlier years could be reclaimed.
- Set her up for the future. We put simple bookkeeping in place so nothing is missed again.
What changed
Her tax bill fell noticeably once every expense and relief was claimed, and the missed pension relief produced a worthwhile refund. The saving comfortably exceeded our fee in the first year, and she no longer wonders whether she is overpaying.
What this shows
Filing your own return is fine until reliefs and less obvious expenses come into play. Higher rate pension relief in particular is routinely missed by people filing alone.
Sure you are not overpaying?
We review your costs and reliefs, claim everything you are entitled to, and often reclaim relief missed in earlier years. The saving frequently beats the fee.