Regular readers will know I am going through some of the questions from a recent interactive quiz I did called “Ten Tax Things all Landlords should know”.
The average score when I do this is 3 out of 10. All of the questions are fairly routine things that are likely to happen to landlords. My first question though, used as a fact finder, is “How much help do you get with your tax returns?”.
48% said they had no help and did their own, 16% said they had some help in that the send their figures to an advisor for submission and 36% said they send all of their information to an advisor who does all of the work.
You don’t have to be much of a stats fan to realise there is a worrying gap here. 64% of people decide what figures to put on their tax returns but yet the average score on my quiz is 3 out of ten. How many of the people that did the quiz, but did their own figures, went away and sought advice? You’d hope they all would. Examples of errors spotted form the audience included someone that had never claimed and interest relief because they thought it had been removed altogether and someone that failed to claim a £7,000 expense for a replacement kitchen. Both of these errors would have paid my tax return fees for years…
There must be psychology at play though because those same people would gladly make the case for their own professions. You should never require your own house, fit your own boiler, do your own roof, dentistry or cut your own hair. We all know this. Why then are two thirds of people doing their own taxes? Answers to me please! I’d love to know!