[2023-11-19] Tax situation update - things are looking BAD [u_dH4Ewx-eA]

So it's been a few months since I made my

last tax update situation video, and

that's because the tax people have not

replied to me in over 2 months now. I

don't know what's going on, but last time

I spoke to them, they said I owed tax for

2019 and 2010— 2020,

and they said I owed about £7,600,

which I've paid already thanks to my mum.

But the problem is I shouldn't have had to

pay for 2019 because I told them I was

living in Japan, I was married in Japan,

and then they said to me, can you provide

as proof that you were living in Japan.

So I sent them pictures of invoices of my

hotels, Airbnbs, plane tickets, flight

tickets, and I also showed them stamps in

my passport showing that I entered and

left Japan. So I sent all this stuff and

they didn't reply. It's been over 2 months

and I haven't heard a word from them

unless the messages got lost in my spam

filter or something. I don't know. But I

checked all my spam stuff, my folders,

and I scrolled down looking for emails and

I couldn't find anything from them. And I

sent 2 messages to them and And they

haven't replied to those either. So I

don't know why they're ghosting me, but

it's like I paid the money and now they're

ghosting me. I logged on to my tax account

and it said I owed £7,600.

£7,000 was for the 2 years, 2019 and 2020.

And then the extra £600 was for interest.

So they've been charging me £1.50 every

single day in interest over the last,

what, 3 years or 4 years since 2020.

So that's a lot of interest. That I had to

pay on top of the tax I owed. So obviously

I don't have £7,600 just lying around in

my bank. I think that's like $10,000. Who

has $10,000 spare cash just lying around?

The only way to get that money would be if

I sold my stocks in my stock market

portfolio, but I'd have to sell it at a

loss because I still haven't recouped the

losses that I lost in my initial stock

market losses. So I don't really want to

sell my stocks yet because I don't really

want to have to sell my stocks at a loss

and take my money out of the market before

the markets had a chance to go back up

again. So obviously I want to keep my

money in my stocks. So I asked my mum,

could you lend me some money so I could

pay my tax? And first she said no, she

said she didn't have the money. Sorry, I

can't help you. And I was like, ah crap,

I'm gonna have to sell my stocks. And then

the next day she messaged me again asking

me how much do I need and she's willing to

help. So I say £7,000 would be

great. So she sends me the £7,000 straight

away and then I pay my tax. So I have paid

all the tax I owe so far. But I don't know

how much I owe for 2021 because they said

we're still calculating how much you owe

for 2021. But that was 2 months ago.

Surely it doesn't take 2 months to

calculate how much tax I owe. You just add

up the numbers. I already gave them my

bank statements and my PayPal statements

and my YouTube statements. So they should

have calculated it already. I guess it's

going to be like 3 to 4 maybe £5,000

I owe in tax for 2021. Because even in

2021, I made quite a lot of money on

YouTube and also, you know, that other

website that we shall not mention for

certain reasons. But even in 2021, I made

quite a lot of money, like £25,000 to

£30,000. And I think there's a 10% or is

it 15%? Maybe even 20% of that is taxable.

So 20% of £30,000 is like £6,000.

£7,000. Plus I would owe interest on that

as well for a few years. So it's like a

couple hundred pounds on top of that. So I

reckon 2021 is going to be pretty painful

as well. And I don't really feel like I

can ask my mum again for another £7,000

because that's already quite a lot of

money she agreed to lend to me. And I have

to pay her back now £500 a month. So in

addition of another possible £6,000 or

£7,000 tax bill coming just for 2021, I

have to still pay my mum back £500 a month

until I pay her back a total of £7,000.

Plus my dwindling YouTube views means I

only earn about £800 to £900 a month from

my YouTube earnings. So minus £500, I've

only got about £400 left after I pay my

mum back. And then I've got to pay for my

rent and my food and all my other bills

like phone bills and subscriptions and all

that kind of stuff. So as things are right

now, Every month my expenses are actually

more than my income. I think I'm actually

going to have to start dipping into my

savings to be able to pay off my mum, pay

my rent and my living expenses. And then

I'm having to— and then I have to get

ready for the next big blow, which is

going to be 2021. I don't know when

they're going to finish calculating it. I

finished my own self-assessment for 2022

and I owe about £1,600 for 2022.

I didn't make a huge amount of money in

2022. Thank God I didn't make more money

because that means my tax tax bills much

lower. So I only owe £1,600 for 2022,

which was last year, but then I also have

to pay in advance for next year, for 2023

to 2024, even though 2023 tax year

hasn't even finished yet. They do this new

thing where you have to pay your tax a

year in advance based off of your earnings

in the previous year, and obviously I'm

not going to make as much money next year

as I did this year, or was it last year?

I don't know, it's confusing me now. But

I'm making less money year by year

because, you know, my YouTube channel is

not doing as good as it used to. But

they're going to try and charge me tax

based off of earnings that I made in the

previous year, which is not fair because I

shouldn't have to pay any tax for this

year's earnings because I barely made any

money. I made like, I think I made under

the £12,500 tax-free allowance.

So I shouldn't technically have to pay any

tax, but they're still going going to tax

me. So I don't know if they're going to

refund me back that money or if I can

dispute it and say, wait, I didn't

actually earn enough money to be taxed.

So that means the situation, the current

situation is I finished paying 2019 and

2020. I probably am going to have to pay

£5,000 to £6,000 for 2021. I need to pay

£1,600 for last year,

2022. And then for this year, which

actually technically ends in 2024 April,

so it's not even over yet. For this year,

I have to pay £1,600. So that's the same

as last year because it's based off of

those earnings. So in total, I think I'm

going to owe— I still have to pay another

£9,000 or £8,000,

which I don't know where I'm going to get

from. My mum probably doesn't want to lend

me more money. And my only option is to

sell my stocks, which I really don't want

to have to sell my stocks because one of

my biggest dreams in life is to one day

become a professional investor and trader.

And I don't really know how to do that if

I don't have my life savings to trade and

invest with. I can't just like sit here

trading with £100, £200 and make 10%

profit because it's not really a usable

amount of money if you want to be an

investor. But I might have to give up on

my dream, my dream for now of being an

investor, just so I can pay off this

stupid tax and then just get it over and

done with. I won't have to worry about tax

ever again because now I barely make any

money to be taxed. So the only way to ever

have to worry about tax again is if

somehow I magically make like £30,000

in the next year. And the only way that's

going to happen is if my views go up to

about 30,000 to 40,000 views every video

like before, which is just not going to

happen ever again. It really astonishes me

sometimes that my videos used to get so

many views compared to now where I'm just

getting like 2,000. 3,000, 4,000 views and

the video is making about $10 each. That

is very sad. But it's also kind of

comforting knowing that I'm not going to

make so much money ever again to have to

worry about this stupid tax thing, which

has honestly been the most stressful thing

this entire year. And you can probably see

as hard as I'm trying to hide it and cover

it up, you can probably see all the

pimples on my face because of all this

damn stress. So let this be a warning for

any aspiring YouTubers or any YouTubers

who might be watching this right now who

have a small channel. Or might have a

channel that's blowing up. You might be

making loads of money this year or even

next year or even 2 years from now. You

might be making loads of money and you

feel like a god and you're buying all this

stuff. But be careful. Make sure you pay

your tax, how much you owe in that year,

because there's no guarantees. Maybe 3 or

4 years down the line, no one cares about

your channel anymore and you're making

like 30% of what you used to make.

It's very scary and painful having to pay

off a massive tax bill that was based off

of earnings you made years ago when you

were making a lot more, when you don't

really make much anymore because the tax

bill dwarfs how much I make nowadays.

And I'm really glad and lucky that I still

have a lot of savings. I have like £18,000

in savings, but I wanted to use that money

to invest and try and grow the money. But

now I'm going to have to probably sell

most of it just to pay off the tax bill

and get that over and done with. So I've

had to make some adjustments in my life in

relation to how much money I spend. I had

to cancel my UK trip back to the UK for

Christmas because it's just way too

expensive. Flight tickets in December at

that time are just insanely expensive. It

would have been over £2,000 or maybe

£1,800 to get me and my girlfriend flight

tickets to the UK, direct flights, maybe

£1,200 if we did an overnight layover in

China, which I don't really want to do.

And also getting her a UK visa. Did you

know Thai people can't visit the UK

without a visa? They have to apply for a

visa, and it's a very annoying process.

They either have to have £5,000 or £6,000

in their own bank account to show that

they have money to support themselves,

and they also have to prove things like

ownership of a car, proof of address,

proof of stable employment. Just so they

can go on holiday to the UK, they need to

do all this stuff and check off all of

these checkboxes to be able to get a visa.

And if they don't have enough money, then

the boyfriend, also known as me, can

sponsor the Thai girlfriend to get a UK

visa. But I need about £6,000 in my bank

account to show them that I have enough

money to support my girlfriend while she's

in the UK, which I don't have. I don't

have just £6,000 lying around in my bank

account to show them a bank statement. So

it's too much work, too much hassle, too

much money. I can't afford like £2,000,

£3,000 just to go back for Christmas. And

also the UK is not that great. In December

anyway. It's really dark at around 5 PM

and it's very cold. And right now the

situation in London with the protests

doesn't look like a very fun time to be in

the UK right now. So I decided to cancel

the UK trip back for Christmas just to

save money. And I also had to send my

iPhone 15 Pro back because it was just too

expensive and I don't really, really need

a very expensive brand new phone when I've

already got like 4 phones right now. It's

just kind of painful having to mentally

accept the fact that I just can't afford

to buy the latest and greatest in tech and

phones anymore. And I can't just splash

out going traveling anymore. And if I want

to go travel, I can't afford to get the

comfy, convenient direct flights. I have

to get like stupid overnight layovers at

some Timbuktu airport. Being broke really

sucks. I haven't felt so broke and so poor

since maybe I don't know,

2015, because when I got my job at the

petrol station in 2016, I felt loaded. I

was making £1,400, which is like $1,800

every month, living with my parents. So I

didn't have to pay any bills. And I was

making— I had disposable income of over

£1,200 every month from working at the

petrol station. So I felt pretty rich

then. And then obviously the YouTube

channel blew up from 2018 until 20— I'd

say this year it kind of died and fell

off. So until from 2018 until this year,

for the last 5 years, I felt pretty good

with the amount of money I was making.

But right now, since the last 4 months,

since 4 months ago, I have never felt so

worried and scared about money. And I

never felt so broke and poor since I was

like 20. 3 or 24

years old, which was over 10 years ago.

So it's sad that I'm not really making any

progress in life. And I've just kind of—

it's like I've made 5 steps forward and

then 10 steps back. The scary thing is I

still don't know how much I have to pay

back in penalties. They still haven't told

me how much they're going to penalize me

by. They've told me how much I owe for

2019 and 2020, but not 2021 yet. I've seen

how much I owe in interest, but I don't

know if I'm going to have to pay back 50%

penalties or even 100% penalties.

So in addition to the penalties, it's

going to be really painful. I'm going to

lose probably most of my life savings and

I'm going to be back down to not having

any money anymore, which is going to be so

fun. And I can't just rebuild my savings

because all the money I still make now

just ends up going straight into spending

it on stuff like rent and food and little

trips here and there I go on in Thailand

and also paying my mum back. So I can't

rebuild my savings because I'm not making

enough money to be able to have— I don't

have any savings left over at the end of

the month. I guess all we can do is just

wait and see how it goes. And then I'll

let you know in the next tax update video

how much I owe for 2021 when they finally

get back to me. And then also I need to

let you know how much I owe in penalties.

If they decide to hit me with like 70%

penalties, that's going to be devastating.

So when I know this stuff, I will let you

know with a new update video.