Demonstrating that recently paid self-employment tax has been paid

[drgold]

I am employed and self-employed. Although I will be applying for naturalisation online I have taken a look at the paper form to see what will be needed. It states that these supporting documents are required:

Evidence of tax for self-employed applicants only
• the most recent HM Revenue & Customs Self Assessment Statement of Account

Evidence of National Insurance contributions covering the relevant period:
• payslips
• P60’s
• letter or letters from your employer or employers confirming you have worked in their
employment including start and finish dates

I have payslips (and soon to have a P60) from my own limited company from May 2023 to the present. I have P60s/payslips for when I worked for another employer through Sep 2022. I received self-employment income from Aug 2022 onwards.

Although I filed and paid self-assessment for 2022/3 back in Nov, the "statements" section in the HMRC Self-Assessment portal is empty. There is however a "Payments/credits received" page that shows that I have paid my "Balancing payment for tax year ending 05 Apr 2023" and "First payment on account for tax year ending 05 Apr 2024". (It doesn't specifically show that I have paid NI, though I would hope that the Home Office would know that NI would be part of the balancing payment that was owed/paid.) Would this be sufficient?

Also, regarding my payslips from my own limited company, they look strange because salary was not taken evenly throughout the year - my accountant explained that PAYE calculations were adjusted to reflect the actual earnings across the year, so some months actually have tax/NI refunds as opposed to payouts. Is this likely to be confusing enough to the Home Office that it's better to submit P60s only? Or is it always recommended to submit as much evidence as possible (payslips + P60s in this case)?

[contorted_svy]

Can you generate a SA302 from the HMRC website? If not worth contacting their helpline?

Also worth considering that as the new tax year is about to start you may be expected to file for this new year and supply those documents (I applied in May last year and filed my taxes for 2022/2023 before applying).

[drgold]

Great idea, I will do that, much appreciated. Congrats on your successful application.

[drgold]

For those with self-employment income, the checklist with the online application asks for "most recent tax year account statement and corresponding HMRC tax return". I take this to mean:
* The most recent "Self Assessment Statement" (from View statements -> Statement history in online account)
* The full tax return that was submitted
* I am unsure whether the SA302 is actually needed in addition to those two documents, but it seems to be discussed frequently here so I am assuming it is also recommended.

(Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this, or if there is anything I am missing!)

Having read on this forum that self-employment tax owed should be paid up prior to application submission, I filed early and got my accountant to generate an SA302 for me, and have just now paid the balance due. The site said "your payment will take 3 to 5 days to show in your account" so I expect (hope) that a Statement of Account showing a zero balance will automatically appear in a few days, which I can submit with my application.

However, my SA302 was generated prior to my payment and shows a balance due. (As I submitted my returns through an accountant, my Government Gateway account does not allow me either to directly view the submitted annual return or the latest SA302, but my accountant (for a fee) can generate an SA302 for me if needed.)

Does the SA302 "update" to reflect new payments, or is it just an annual form showing what will be owed for a particular year? I am trying to determine whether it makes sense for me to request another SA302 from my accountant after the payment is showing on my account, or if this would just result in me receiving the identical SA302 that I already have. And if anything else is needed.

I apologize if the first question is really a question for my accountant, but he seems to have taken on more clients than he can handle requests from in a timely fashion, so I thought I would try here.

[alterhase58]

Not familiar with the self-employed aspects but as far as I know there's no requirement that you must pay all your tax liability before applying. Clearly if you are overdue it might be a good idea to catch up in any case. Correct me if I'm wrong. The requirement is to provide your return.

[contorted_svy]

You don't need to have paid all your taxes before applying (though it is not a silly idea - I did it when I applied last year). All you need to provide is full tax return and SA302.

[drgold]

Thanks both - I had seen this post from a moderator stating that "for a BC application, proof that tax liabilities have been met are one of the conditions for granting nationality", so I thought that perhaps taxes need to be paid up first. That said, this was mentioned in the context of someone who failed to submit SA returns that should have been filed and is behind on their taxes, which is not my circumstance.

But of course from the SA302 alone, you can't tell whether I'm behind or not - it just says the amount due at the time the taxes were filed (or perhaps at the time the SA302 was generated), with no deadline listed.

[CR001]

Then don't dig up topics from 2009 that are not the same circumstances as you describe for yourself.