I am planning to apply for citizenship after holding ILR for a year due to being unmarried. Can you assist me with this? In terms of employment, I've been a full-time employee at my company since 2021 and had a temporary second job for 7 months in 2022, which ended in 2023.
The combined earnings from both jobs exceed £100k, resulting in HMRC automatically assigning me a UTR in June 2023 for self-employment based on the gross pay being above £100k.
Taxes were deducted by both employers through PAYE but it may not be enough.
I haven't yet filed my tax return, which is valid until January 2024.
I provided the tax reference for my employer.
Query:
Do I need to select the self-employment option also and provide the UTR, even though I haven't submitted the tax return yet?
A UTR is just a unique taxpayer reference number, being given one doesn't indicate that you are self employed, merely that, in this case, HMRC want you to file a self assessment tax return.
So if you're not self employed., which you aren't as you're in PAYE, don't say that you are on the citizenship application. There is no harm in providing them with your UTR.
Although the deadline for filing online is the end of January, don't leave it until the last moment to file as it takes some time to get registered for online access and you need to have the tax return completed plus any taxes owed paid by then to avoid penalties.
In your shoes, I'd file the return and pay any taxes due before applying for citizenship, just to have that part all taken care of.
