Too busy to read?

The deadline for online returns is 31 January each year, so for example you would fill out a tax return for the year 5 April 2017 to 6 April 2018 by 31 January 2019. If you have a turnover of more than PS85,000 you also have to register for VAT.

People worry about taxes too much, and they make all kinds of bad decisions to avoid them. Listen to me: You pay taxes only if you make money. If you're paying 30 percent in taxes on something, it means you made 70 percent elsewhere, so do not freak out about taxes.

Cycle-to-work scheme You can save as much as 42 per cent, for higher-rate taxpayers, and 32 per cent as a basic-rate taxpayer, on a bike to use for commuting to work via the cycle-to-work scheme. Your employer pays the cost of the bike and you pay your company back in instalments as a 'salary sacrifice', i.e. money that comes out of your gross pay automatically. That means you are not paying tax on it, unlike if you were to buy a bike out of your net pay. You can spend up to PS1,000 on a bike and equipment. Check out bike2workscheme.co.uk for more.

You may be on an emergency tax code. This often happens if your new employer does not have your P45. Most emergency tax codes end with M1 or W1, which indicates that you are being taxed monthly or weekly rather than annually, or maybe 0T, which indicates that you do not get the personal allowance because HMRC does not have enough information about your income.

PAYE stands for pay as you earn, and is the way you will pay tax if you are employed (for those that are self-employed skip on). Your employer will pay income tax and National Insurance to HMRC on your behalf before you receive your salary. How much that is is set out in your payslip, which is essentially a receipt for your earnings, income tax and National Insurance.

National Insurance is however 'pay as you go'. The contributions you pay are used to fund people needing state benefits immediately, so your NICs are funding your parents' and grandparents' pensions, not yours.

Higher-rate taxpayers who earn more than PS46,350 will also pay 20 per cent on the sum between the personal allowance (PS11,850) and the higher-rate threshold (PS46,351), but then 40 per cent on anything above that up to a maximum of PS150,000.

The vast majority of people in the UK pay tax at the basic rate, 81.8 per cent (or 25.1 million people) in 2017; only 13.7 per cent of earners paid higher-rate tax (4.2 million people); and just 1.2 per cent paid additional rate (364,000 people). The top 1 per cent of taxpayers had a 12 per cent share of total income, and were liable for 27.7 per cent of all income tax.

many taxes and reliefs apply to a specific year known as the tax year. This is not the same as a calendar year but runs from 6 April until the following 5 April.