To carry back a self-employment loss for the current year to a previous year, you need to make a manual adjustment to your tax return for the year in which the loss occurred. You don't need to resubmit your return for the previous year.
To calculate the manual tax adjustment figure, follow these steps:
- Open the return for the tax year that you're carrying the loss back to.
- Make a note of the tax figure.
- Enter the loss you're carrying back as an expense.
- Make a note the new tax figure.
- Take the second tax figure away from the first to find the adjustment.
You then need to enter the manual tax adjustment.
SimpleStep mode
- Go to Your Work > Self Employment > Short/Full Form – Details – Losses > carry them back to previous years
- Declare that you want to carry the loss back.
- Go to Working out your tax > Tax Adjustments > Adjustments to an earlier year that decrease your tax
- Enter the adjustment figure.
HMRC Forms mode (Short Form)
- Go to Self Employment > Page 2 > Box 34
- Declare that you want to carry the loss back.
- Go to Tax Calculation > Page 2 > Box 15
- Enter the adjustment figure.
HMRC Forms Mode (Full Form)
- Self Employment > Page 4 > Box 79
- Declare that you want to carry the loss back.
- Go to Tax Calculation > Page 2 > Box 15
- Enter the adjustment figure.
To view the adjustment, select Summary from the left-hand menu and click on Tax Payment/Repayment Summary.