Self Assessment - Filing Deadline and Penalty Change

Reed Bunting - Potteric Carr January 2012

As the online filing deadline is fast approaching and there is a change in the penalty regime I thought a reminder might be useful.

If you are a UK taxpayer and need to file a Self Assessment return the deadline is midnight on the 31/01/2012.

This year there is a change in the penalty regime for late filing; even if you have no tax to pay, or have paid the tax you owe there is a £100 penalty for even a day delay in filing. In earlier years the penalty was waived if you had no tax to pay.

The penalties you have to pay increase with the length of delay.

The deadline for paying any tax due is also 31/01/2012 and you must pay any tax you owe by 31 January following the end of the tax year.

For example, for the tax year 2010-11 (ending on 5 April 2011) you must pay any tax you owe by 31 January 2012.

Self Assessment

Aims for 2012

I've got to the difficult bit on my hare now, finishing the legs and adding a little foliage so I thought I'd have a break and talk about my aims for the coming year.

I want to improve on the things I felt to be less successful in 2011 by doing the following:-

Entering more competitions.

I've almost finished my entry for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year and have started my BBC Wildlife entry.

Entering more exhibitions/shows.

Having been accepted to exhibit with Made in Yorkshire I've got an application ready to post applying for several shows with them.
In addition I'm going to attend both Patchings Art Festival and the Supreme Cat Show and I have solo show at the end of the year, six weeks at Sunnyhurst Woods visitor centre.

Continue to develop the tuition side of my business by:-

• Adding to my 'Coloured Pencil Technique' guides, the next ones available will be wolf, snow leopard and tiger, although I'm not sure which will be first. If possible I intend to make these available as ebooks for people to view on their computers, iPads etc.
• Developing an online course on how to draw an animal in coloured pencil
• Working on expanding my technique guides in to a book on drawing animals and birds in coloured pencil. I do not expect to complete this in 2012 just make a start.
• Looking into the possibility of giving classroom tuition on coloured pencil techniques

Make my blog more interesting by widening the topics discussed.

I am aware that my blog has become a place for me to share new artwork. That's fine and was one of my aims but as I've mainly drawn cats for the last few years I feel it's got predictable and boring.
I want to add interest by:-

• Highlighting competitions and news which might be of interest to animal/wildlife artists.
• Creating mini tutorials on different subjects.
• Posting more about the dogs and my travels in search of reference material.
• Talking more about why I choose to photograph or paint a particular animal or bird.
• Having a guest artist spot every month (if possible).
• Discussing more marketing topics which might be useful to others.
• Not posting if I've nothing useful to say, I see this as important to maintain interest both for me and my readers

And lastly, Create more Artwork!

Review of 2011

Review of 2011

I count the following as my achievements in 2011:-

• Sold work at the 2011 Society of Feline Artists Exhibition and was asked to sit on their selection committee for 2012 onwards.
• Created two coloured pencil guides, a tabby cat and a dog
• Created a reasonable amount of ACEO's, all of which sold, thanks to my repeat customers
• Continued to blog at least once a week, however see below for what I felt wasn't successful.
• Built up a large body of reference photographs including animals and birds in their environment
• My work was featured in Talking Point the magazine of the UK Coloured Pencil Society
• Had a painting accepted for the NEWA exhibition
  

The following I was less happy with:-

• Entered less exhibitions than I'd planned at the beginning of the year due to spending too much time browsing the internet rather than painting new work.
• Only had a stand at two shows, Patchings and the Supreme cat show, again this was less than I'd planned to do.
• Didn't create enough work especially for my planned UK wildlife series
• Didn't feel my blog had a wide interest, it tended to revolve round the painting and drawing of cats. I was also slow posting comments which I apologise for and promise not to do this year.
• I didn't manage to write my online course which I'd hoped to do in the Autumn

Looking back over last year although there were some highlights I feel that I lacked focus, tomorrow I'll share what I plan for 2012 to address that.