If you are anything like me or one of the millions of people who have to do a tax return and leave it to the last minute, here are some tips to making sure next years tax return is less stressful.

The most important thing that I can say to anyone that has to fill a tax return in is give yourself plenty of time, the government gives 10 months to fill it in so I have no idea why I keep leaving it till the last week of January. I decided to file my tax return online this year being the first time I have done this there are some mistakes I made. - To file your tax return online you need to sign up for the service in advance, once you have signed up an activation code will be sent in the post which can take anything up to 7 days to arrive. You can use the service before you have your activation code but it will not allow you to file your tax return until you have inputted your activation code.

- Make sure you make a note of the password you have created when you first signed up, I didn’t to get a new password, the tax office will send one out to you by post not online, again taking anything up to 7 days to arrive.

The main reason I took so long to file my tax return was – laziness, and the fact that I thought you needed to pay your tax as soon as you filed your tax return. This is not the case you can pay it any time you like the last day being the 31^st of January. So it is best to file it early and remember to pay by the 31^st of January. Another thing to remember is once it has been filed you cannot alter it, so make sure that it is right first time. But also remember if you are having trouble then make an appointment with your local tax office, they were actually really helpful when I went. You are better to file a return that is nearly right that not at all, as you will be fined £100 for not filing one.