Owe HMRC less than a quid…

[chrisdk]

Low priority question time (and I suspect HMRC will answer if for me within the next 72hrs):

Just completed my SA return (I know, I know but at least it’s done before quarter to midnight on Tuesday), all very vanilla and turns out I owe HMRC 60p (!).

Will I actually have to pay it ? Or do they write off small amounts ?

[Mr Pointy]

If you don't pay it you'll probably get a £100 fine thereby solving the issue of it only being a small amount.

[55palfers]

I owed them £10 once. They wrote me a letter!

[cheesejunkie]

Lol, I’ve absolutely no idea but I’ll be looking forward to an answer from someone who knows.

How did you manage that? From memory the online self assessment forms round off the decimal places.

[chrisdk]

cheesejunkie said:

Lol, I’ve absolutely no idea but I’ll be looking forward to an answer from someone who knows.

How did you manage that? From memory the online self assessment forms round off the decimal places.

This is the bit I don’t quite get - I entered my P60 details to the nearest quid so it’s possible I might be fiddling them out of another 5p or so….

It was a lot more but then I realised I’d forgotten WFH allowance which seemed to square it all off against whatever tax code I was on.

Will see what they say and find back for completeness !

[Simpo Two]

Mr Pointy said:

If you don't pay it you'll probably get a £100 fine thereby solving the issue of it only being a small amount.

If the smallest amount you can send is £1 maybe send that. At least it will mean you're in credit not debit.

[Flooble]

Hmm, I was always under the impression that the guidance notes go out of their way to be fair in that you round down income and round up tax already paid.

So I'm quite surprised you have 60p at the end of that. Might be worth double checking all your figures and ensuring you have definitely claimed every allowance/included every bit of tax you have paid ... and that you have made use of the rounding rules.

[QJumper]

cheesejunkie said:

How did you manage that? From memory the online self assessment forms round off the decimal places.

Maybe there was an existing credit on his tax account. I think mine is around £1.90 in credit from last year.

[trevalvole]

There's a card payment facility on their website - I'd (and I have recently for £1.80) have a go at paying via this - I'm sure they'll tell you if it isn't required. I couldn't find anything saying I didn't need to pay the £1.80.

[bmwmike]

Put it in credit and make them pay you interest.

[arfur]

bmwmike said:

Put it in credit and make them pay you interest.

If it's in credit by more than 100 quid they send you a cheque back these days - gone are the days of HMRC paying a better rate than a savings account :-(

[Mammasaid]

My outstanding tax was £4.40, just waited a few days and paid it by debit card.

Don't know what some people are having issues with? Whole pounds only? It's not 1950 any more!

[slatermethuen]

HMRC just sent me a letter saying I owed them 6p. They kindly said that, because it was such as small amount, I didn’t need to pay it, but if I chose not to they will charge interest.

[chrisdk]

Mammasaid said:

My outstanding tax was £4.40, just waited a few days and paid it by debit card.

Don't know what some people are having issues with? Whole pounds only? It's not 1950 any more!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disputing paying my fair share (if all tax payers owed 60p I reckon that’s about £20m quid which is probably a few thousand nurses salaries paid for ?).

It was more a question of at what point the admin burden outweighs the financial benefit.

Been on the go today but will check the PDF return later - suspect it might be due to previous period credits as someone suggested.

[Eric Mc]

chrisdk said:

Low priority question time (and I suspect HMRC will answer if for me within the next 72hrs):

Just completed my SA return (I know, I know but at least it’s done before quarter to midnight on Tuesday), all very vanilla and turns out I owe HMRC 60p (!).

Will I actually have to pay it ? Or do they write off small amounts ?

For a start, the late filing penalty of £100 is purely to do with missing the filing deadline for the return and has nothing to do with outstanding tax liabilities.

If you don't pay the 60p tax due, HMRC will start charging interest until it is paid. They can levy a 5% surcharge if it remains unpaid at 28 February.

[PM3]

chrisdk said:

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disputing paying my fair share (if all tax payers owed 60p I reckon that’s about £20m quid which is probably a few thousand nurses salaries paid for ?).

That would only be true in the rarefied arithmetic world of dumbo Diane Julie Abbott

[Panamax]

chrisdk said:

turns out I owe HMRC 60p (!)

You should expect a phone call from Rishi Sunak some time tomorrow inviting you to become Chairman of the Conservative Party, and perhaps Chancellor of the Exchequer as well!

Just remember, getting help from a mate to shore-up an £800,000 loan isn't "financial advice", especially if you're about to appoint that mate to a senior job in the public sector.

[anonymous-user]

Panamax said:

chrisdk said:

turns out I owe HMRC 60p (!)

You should expect a phone call from Rishi Sunak some time tomorrow inviting you to become Chairman of the Conservative Party, and perhaps Chancellor of the Exchequer as well!

Just remember, getting help from a mate to shore-up an £800,000 loan isn't "financial advice", especially if you're about to appoint that mate to a senior job in the public sector.

It was a mistake!

[Evolved]

It’s the HMRC, we have a £500bn hole to fill. They will want that pound, that’s for damn sure.

If they wrote off a pound for every tax paying person, it’d soon add up. It’s a lot of hassle for such a small amount, but as said, they’ll stick interest on to make it worth your while.

[NuckyThompson]

You can apportion a percentage of your phone bill for business use too I think so may not have had to owe them anything