If you’re sitting at your desk cursing yourself and swearing to be better prepared for filing your self assessment next year, then I know exactly how you feel. Last year that was me.

This year I’m smugly sat here with the dreaded form done and dusted, thanks in large part to the ridiculous levels of stress I experienced last year – on a par with moving house – and my vow never to let things get so out of hand again.

Here’s how I took the pain out of my tax return.

1. Get organised

Buy yourself two folders – one for invoices and one for receipts. At the end of each month (or when you send your invoices) print them out and put them in the folder in date order from April. Keep the other folder somewhere safe, and each time you get a receipt for something which counts as a business expense, put it in there. I personally tend to just stuff them into the folder, but if you’re especially organised you can put them in date order – as long as they’re all together.

You can check this page on the HMRC website to see what counts as an allowable expense.

2. Don’t be afraid to call HMRC

I know it’s easy to imagine that the people at the tax office are all strange alien beings who exist only to make your life difficult, but in reality they’re actually very helpful. Though calling them at any other time of the year than two days before the deadline is obviously preferable.

If there’s something on the form which has really flummoxed you this year, phone up and find out how to deal with it so you’re prepared for next year. Remember there is no question too silly – believe me, they will have already been asked them all. And if you think you might forget the advice HMRC give you, make a note of it and put it in that folder with the invoices.

3. Learn to love spreadsheets

This isn’t as horrible as it sounds, I promise. Just set up an spreadsheet on your computer with two sheets. The first should be for incomings and needs three columns – one for the date, one for the company paying you, and one for the amount they paid.

The second sheet is for outgoings and will need a date column, and as many other columns as you need for expenses – things like travel, stationary and utilities for instance – keeping them separate is always more straightforward.

You don’t have to spend half your spare time on these – in fact, quite the opposite. I tend to turn to them twice a year: in April and October time. On these two occasions simply spend a couple of hours filling in the columns by using the information in your two folders. If you kept everything carefully they should contain all you need.

Don’t forget to back up the spreadsheets just in case, and remember that apart from helping you when it comes to filing your return, these spreadsheets and your folders are your proof should the tax inspector come knocking.

4. Set yourself a new deadline

It seems that we somehow have a natural tendency towards leaving things to the last minute. I do it all the time too. Given that the tax year is over in April, you have a whole nine months in which to file your return – crazy then that hundreds of thousands of people do it on deadline day.

To avoid that dreaded scenario, it helps to create a pretend deadline in your head. Convince yourself that you actually have to have the thing done by November. Write it on your calendar, stick notes on your fridge, make a reminder on your phone. That still gives you seven months to do it, and if you set aside a couple of hours on one or two evenings or weekends to get the numbers on your spreadsheet on to the form, you’ll be there in no time. Plus if you get stuck, there’s plenty of time to phone and ask for help.

{Image: taxbrackets.org}