A Gift From The Tax Man…

Who said the tax man was all bad?

For the first time ever, I have received a gigantic ‘gift’ from the tax man!

Before I set up ‘The Lady Saddler’ business last September, I had previously run a hobby business called Hunters Cottage Art. I had learnt a new skill called paper cutting which is basically cutting paper with a scalpel in elaborate designs. I had a lovely customer base who would request personalised wedding, family, christening or birthday paper art that they would then gift to their family and/or friends.

I never set out to make it a full time business and to be honest it would never have made the wage I needed to pay the bills so I continued with it alongside my full time job partly because I enjoyed creating one off pieces of art and partly because the money I did earn often paid for a family takeaway or a day out with the children during the school holidays.

Whilst doing my tax return this time round, I discovered that because I work full time whereby I already pay tax through my employer I was able to offset the expenditure of the hobby business against tax I had already paid which resulted in me receiving a lovely 3 figure sum of money back.

However there is something I did which I hadn’t done before and I probably wouldn’t have had quite as much back had I not received the guidance I got from an accountant friend Nicola Hageman Accountancy  who I had recently met online.

I had never asked an accountant for their help in the past because I didn’t think I warranted their service being as I didn’t earn a decent wage from my business but it certainly did pay off this time round and without her help I would only have received a third of what I was entitled to.

It just goes to show that if you know an accountant it might well be in your best interest to ask them to look over your tax return before submitting it. It certainly paid off for me and will be something I’ll be doing again in the future.

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