Self-Assessment - Doing it yourself?

We fully appreciate that, because of the amount of time that seafarers spend away from home, it is difficult to keep up to date with your tax affairs. This is even more important due to the introduction of self-assessment as penalties are now charged for being late with your tax return. We appreciate that a number of seafarers feel able to deal with their own tax affairs without the need of the services of a firm like ours. This is quite true and we would be the first to admit that it is perfectly possible to deal with these matters yourselves. However, it is also quite possible to service your own car or central heating system, but can you be totally confident that you have got it exactly right? The worst example we had of this was one client who enrolled with us because Cardiff had rejected his 100% claim.

When his dates were checked he had a perfectly viable claim but he had unfortunately taken a holiday in the middle of his sea service which broke the half rule when he returned to the UK after his holiday. Had he been a client of ours at the time we could have advised him not to take the holiday at that time, or advised when was the best time to take the holiday to fit in with his 100% claim. Therefore it is always best to make sure that you get the best advice available to assist you in ensuring that your claim runs through to a successful conclusion. As confident as we are of the service we offer, we realise that there can always be room for improvement. If any of our clients feel that the service can be improved upon they are more than welcome to share their thoughts with us.