Every box in the capture screen carries a small badge with its HMRC box reference (EMP1, SSE9, INC4…) matching the paper forms and HMRC’s own notes — so if you are working from a P60, accounts or last year’s return, you can cross-check box by box.
How each page is laid out
The boxes on a page are gathered into groups under headings that follow the paper form — Pay and tax, Employer, Allowable expenses and so on. Each heading shows how many of its boxes are filled (“2 of 5”) and can be clicked to fold the group away. On the longer pages a link at the top, Show only groups with figures, hides every empty group so you can review what has been entered without scrolling past the rest.
Some boxes only apply once a question has been answered Yes — the date a business started, for example — and appear when it is. Free-text boxes accept only the characters HMRC allows (letters, numbers, spaces and a few symbols such as & ( ) , - . /); type anything else, such as a colon or semicolon, and the box warns you straight away, because HMRC would reject the whole return for it.
Employment (SA102)
Open Employment (SA102) and press Add Employment for each job — a return can carry any number, each in its own card titled by employer name. Enter the pay and tax taken off from the P45/P60, plus any benefits and allowable expenses.
Two boxes are required by HMRC for every employment: the employer’s PAYE reference and the “company director” yes/no. A return missing either is rejected by HMRC’s systems, so answer them even when they feel obvious.
When a client has more than one employment the cards are listed closed, each showing the employer and the pay, and open one at a time. Remove asks you to confirm before it deletes a card’s figures.
Self-employment (SA103S / SA103F)
Choose short pages for straightforward businesses under the VAT threshold, or full pages where turnover is higher or the accounts need the detailed breakdown. As with employments, add one business card per trade.
The business description and the did the business start / cease in the year questions are required by HMRC on every business. Enter the turnover and expense boxes, then the profit boxes as they appear on the accounts — the taxable profit you enter in the “total taxable profits” box is what flows into the tax calculation, including Class 4 National Insurance.
Where a total box is simply the sum of the boxes above it, Tax Optimiser adds them up for you. Enter the individual expenses and the total box shows what they come to, with a Use this link that fills it in; once the total agrees it shows a tick. The total is never overwritten for you, because HMRC lets a small business enter total expenses on their own without the breakdown.
UK Property (SA105)
The property page follows the SA105 layout: rents and other income, the expense categories, and the adjusted and taxable profit for the year. Residential finance costs (mortgage interest) go in their own box — the calculation gives the 20% tax reduction automatically rather than deducting them from profits.
Interest, dividends and other income
Interest & Dividends takes bank and building society interest (taxed interest is entered net, exactly as the paper form asks, and grossed up in the calculation) and dividends from companies and unit trusts. State Benefits & Pensions and Other UK Income cover the rest of the SA100’s core income boxes.
Partnership shares, foreign income, trust and estate income, capital gains, residence status and the Additional Information pages each have their own section — they are covered together in the supplementary pages.
Next: The supplementary pages.
