Help with UK Tax

First time filing a UK tax return, and already encountering quite a number of questions: 1. Are there no allowance for married couple? I read the tax guide and it seems that you can only claim married couple allowance if you are born before 1935!!
2. the Expenses section is rather ambiguous. e.g. do travel expenese include your daily underground fare to work, or just "business trip"? What other kinds of expenses can we claim?
More generally, for those of you who have been in UK for a while, just wondering how's everyone's experience in filing UK tax return--are you able to get much refund?

1. Married couple's allowance is indeed only available for the elderly among us.
2. Commuting costs are only deductible if one is working on a period of "detached duty" from one's normal workplace, eg a business trip.

Disclaimer: I am not a tax adviser or accountant, just someone who has done a tax return (for a partnership) for several years and is also employed...

As far as expenses are concerned, the situation depends in part whether you are employed or self-employed.

If you are employed, common practice would be that your employer pays your travel expenses and often they will get a dispensation from HMCE that you don't need to declare expense payments from your employer on your tax return (if the expenses were restricted by the employer to HMCE-approved rates/types of claim, the columns for payments and expenses on your tax return would balance out anyway).

There's a fairly clear rule that travel to and from your normal place of work is not usually an allowable expense (your employer can choose to pay it, but it is a taxable benefit if they do). The exception is where you are normally a public transport user and are exceptionally required to work when no public transport is suitable.

If you are self-employed then travel to customer sites is generally an allowable expense (but bear in mind there are strict rules defining what is self-employment vs employment which may apply if you always work in one place for one customer).

To answer your overall question: Most people who have a single continuing employment only will not be likely to see a refund of any substance from doing a tax return (you still have to do one if asked, though!). PAYE gets things close enough for many people. If you are self-employed, rent out property etc. it will become much more significant. This is not a complete list of circumstances and if you're unsure then you should contact a tax office or an accountant, obviously. Maybe if you say a little more about whether you are employed or not it would clarify - which pages are you filling out?

thanks for all the advice and help. I am employed. It sucks when the transport costs to work is so high over here, and yet one can't claim it. well, now I know. but what about flying overseas for conferences--that can count as business trip, right?

cabbage, i'm filing a e-return, so if i understand you correctly, for a employed person like myself with a single continuing employment, I shouldn't be getting any refund(or anything substantial) ...how sad!

If your employer asks you to fly to a conference overseas (or go on any other business trip), then they would normally pay for your tickets (or pay you back if you buy them) and you need to confirm whether you should declare them on your tax return as an expense (along with the payment they made to you for them- so it would balance out). The case where you wouldn't declare them is where your employer has a dispensation - your HR department would advise on that (they should actually give you a statement of any taxable benefits they have given you - this is a form P11(D).)

You are basically correct regarding refunds - as an employee you might get a refunds if you had multiple employments (in some cases) or been on an emergency tax code.

It may seem disappointing not getting a refund, but the plus is that most people don't end up making extra payments either; the PAYE system is clever enough to cope with many different circumstances.

I've not filled out a tax return so far in my 5 years in the UK but that's because until fairly recently I've been employed by a company and had 1 place of work at their office.
However, if you are a higher rate tax payer, ie in the 40% tax bracket, you will most likely have to fill out a tax return.  As I understand it HMRC sends you something if you fall into their categories of people who they believe need to fill out a return.  Of course, you can fill one out anyway but it's not required as with US tax returns.

I'm in the situation where I'll need to fill one out later this year.  I am employed by a company based in Maidenhead but most of my work is at other clients of theirs so I claim expenses and I can claim my business miles/transport costs on my tax return.  There are lots of other reasons to fill out a tax return so you may want to look at www.hmrc.gov.uk for more information.

Cabbage & Matt are quite correct.

However, if you have ANY income arising back in the States that is not brought to the UK (eg interest or dividends) then you must file a return each year, filling out the residence/domicile pages plus the foreign pages and also make a formal claim to be taxable on the remittance basis.  This is the case even if you don't get a UK return mailed to you.

However, if you have ANY income arising back in the States that is not brought to the UK (eg interest or dividends) then you must file a return each year

guya, is that true even if you had something like $2 of interest from a US bank account in the year?  Is there a minimum amount before you must fill out a UK return?

Well, technically yes, but I'd go for $10 or more.  If you have gross income from all sources in excess of the standard deduction (or itemized deductions) and your exemptions, and any of it is US source, you may have US tax due and you will have to compute to determine your total tax.

The UK does not have a de minimus limit in law, but of course the postage alone would be more than $2 so no-one will chase you just for that!