Tax refund gone wrong
Discussion
If you are late submitting a tax return, the INITIAL fine is £100 but it can ramp up to a maximum of £1,800 per return.
The important thing is not to bury your head in the sand. Find out -
a) why they asked you to submit a tax return
b) where they sent the tax return letters (HMRC don't always get it right)
c) was a Self Assessment tax return really appropriate in your circumstances
Contrary to what some people have said here, just because someone is taxed 100% through PAYE does not mean that they are exempted from having to submit self assessment tax returns. PAYE does not always cope well with certain situations and sometimes completing a tax return is not only necessary, but also the best way to resolve a situation.
The important thing is not to bury your head in the sand. Find out -
a) why they asked you to submit a tax return
b) where they sent the tax return letters (HMRC don't always get it right)
c) was a Self Assessment tax return really appropriate in your circumstances
Contrary to what some people have said here, just because someone is taxed 100% through PAYE does not mean that they are exempted from having to submit self assessment tax returns. PAYE does not always cope well with certain situations and sometimes completing a tax return is not only necessary, but also the best way to resolve a situation.
OoopsVoss said:
How about, phone them and ask what the deal is? You'd be on hold for a while, but it would be time well spent rather than acting rashly on advice without full facts.
Eric I believe is correct - they send YOU the letters re SA. I also remember multiple fines in a year, and after a point they ramp (or used to - when I was tardy and kept putting off a simple SA job).
One thing about the HMRC that no one wants you to know, in situations like this - they are normally (or used to be) pretty reasonable. I used to get all my fines cancelled by being courteous and explaining I didn't have a clue what I was doing. It used to be the guys you spoke to had a lot of discretion to cancel these, so unless its changed - phoning them is ALWAYS worth a shot.
This is absolutely spot on. Call them, but don't mention the food expenses thing. Simply ask why you are being asked to complete a self assessment as you've never done one before.Eric I believe is correct - they send YOU the letters re SA. I also remember multiple fines in a year, and after a point they ramp (or used to - when I was tardy and kept putting off a simple SA job).
One thing about the HMRC that no one wants you to know, in situations like this - they are normally (or used to be) pretty reasonable. I used to get all my fines cancelled by being courteous and explaining I didn't have a clue what I was doing. It used to be the guys you spoke to had a lot of discretion to cancel these, so unless its changed - phoning them is ALWAYS worth a shot.
alscar said:
ChocolateFrog said:
They definitely are.
I've never submitted a self assessment in my life. It stems from whatever they've done.
Did you have a written contract or agreement with these people ?I've never submitted a self assessment in my life. It stems from whatever they've done.
Presumably you had nothing in the form of any papers from HMRC over the previous 3 year period ?
They certainly don’t sound like accountants so perhaps they aren’t and you have been unfortunately misled - did you hand them any money for so called fees ? I
Only contact from HMRC was a letter saying my tax code had changed.
Bluequay said:
If they were appointed as his tax agent then the correspondence requesting the self assessment would have gone to them.
Appoint someone to deal with HMRC on your behalf
You can authorise someone else to deal with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for you, for example an accountant, friend or relative.
If you have to fill in a Self Assessment tax return, HMRC will send all correspondence to the person you’ve authorised - except tax bills or refunds. Otherwise, HMRC will continue to write to you.
I assume everything did go to them.Appoint someone to deal with HMRC on your behalf
You can authorise someone else to deal with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for you, for example an accountant, friend or relative.
If you have to fill in a Self Assessment tax return, HMRC will send all correspondence to the person you’ve authorised - except tax bills or refunds. Otherwise, HMRC will continue to write to you.
The only thing that's come to me are the fines.
ChocolateFrog said:
alscar said:
ChocolateFrog said:
They definitely are.
I've never submitted a self assessment in my life. It stems from whatever they've done.
Did you have a written contract or agreement with these people ?I've never submitted a self assessment in my life. It stems from whatever they've done.
Presumably you had nothing in the form of any papers from HMRC over the previous 3 year period ?
They certainly don’t sound like accountants so perhaps they aren’t and you have been unfortunately misled - did you hand them any money for so called fees ? I
Only contact from HMRC was a letter saying my tax code had changed.
You will not be successful in trying to force the company you used to look into the tax break into doing this for you, nor would it be prudent to do so if you could.
Edible Roadkill said:
You need to find out from HMRC what they expected you to file for SA. Could it have been earnings over the child benefit threshold 50-60k or over the 100k threshold which automatically means you need to complete SA ?
No. I've only done over 50k very recently and even then with pension contributions and a SS car I'm actually back below 50k. LastPoster said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Apparently because we don't have our breaks in one location we can claim for food expenses. I believe this to be true but as it caught on apparently HMRC pushed back. <Snip>
To take it back a step, I don't believe that you can claim tax relief for food expenses unless it's connected to overnight stays or business travel. Train driver would have travel as a function of the role, not incidental. Or you can claim to replace a meal typically taken at home. So a day time worker cannot claim for lunch regardless of hours, but could claim an evening meal if they worked until 11pm ad-hoc. A shift worker could not claim for meals during shift, but could if an emergency took them well past the end of the shift.ChocolateFrog said:
This is probably the issue. I guess the company I used had bent the definition in some way, promised us all it was completely legit and they've been pulled up on it by HMRC and then just dropped us as quickly as they can because their fee come out of any payment.
Can you not show us an image of the letter you got from HMRC as I mentioned earlier?E-mail sent to you.
Eric Mc said:
If you are late submitting a tax return, the INITIAL fine is £100 but it can ramp up to a maximum of £1,800 per return.
The important thing is not to bury your head in the sand. Find out -
a) why they asked you to submit a tax return
b) where they sent the tax return letters (HMRC don't always get it right)
c) was a Self Assessment tax return really appropriate in your circumstances
Contrary to what some people have said here, just because someone is taxed 100% through PAYE does not mean that they are exempted from having to submit self assessment tax returns. PAYE does not always cope well with certain situations and sometimes completing a tax return is not only necessary, but also the best way to resolve a situation.
Thanks good advice.The important thing is not to bury your head in the sand. Find out -
a) why they asked you to submit a tax return
b) where they sent the tax return letters (HMRC don't always get it right)
c) was a Self Assessment tax return really appropriate in your circumstances
Contrary to what some people have said here, just because someone is taxed 100% through PAYE does not mean that they are exempted from having to submit self assessment tax returns. PAYE does not always cope well with certain situations and sometimes completing a tax return is not only necessary, but also the best way to resolve a situation.
£300 isn't the end of the world. If I have to I'll suck it up and chalk it up to experience. It just feels a little unjust the way I've been dropped in it.
Just to close this out.
I spoke to HMRC this morning and the lovely lady cancelled Self Assessments for the last 3 years and going forward and also cancelled the fines.
Think I'd just got into the mentality that the company should sort out the mess they made but in the end other than the 45 mins on hold HMRC were great.
Thanks to Eric MC for the long chat and advice, it's what I love most about PH.
For interest I've screenshotted a couple of snippets, one from the 1st email and one from one of the last emails. t
ts didn't follow through on that last bit, too much effort no doubt.
I spoke to HMRC this morning and the lovely lady cancelled Self Assessments for the last 3 years and going forward and also cancelled the fines.
Think I'd just got into the mentality that the company should sort out the mess they made but in the end other than the 45 mins on hold HMRC were great.
Thanks to Eric MC for the long chat and advice, it's what I love most about PH.
For interest I've screenshotted a couple of snippets, one from the 1st email and one from one of the last emails. t
ts didn't follow through on that last bit, too much effort no doubt.Eric Mc said:
Glad you got a good conclusion to the affair. HMRC are not bad IF you can get through to them.
That's why the recent announcement that they will be closing their Self Assessment helpline down is very, very upsetting.
Have you had the agent email today Eric? HMRC have about turned.That's why the recent announcement that they will be closing their Self Assessment helpline down is very, very upsetting.
"Dear customer,
Yesterday we sent you an email about changes to our helplines.
These changes are being halted while we consider how best to help taxpayers harness online services.
More information about this can be found in our press release on GOV.UK.
Yours faithfully
HM Revenue and Customs"
Didn't get either e-mail to be honest.
However, I do get updates from other sources so was aware of what has just happened.
It's absolutely and totally crazy and very, very destructive to any trust in their abilities to do anything.
This is the second recent tax policy u-turn announced within hours of a policy being announced (the other was about the tax treatment of 4 person cab pick-ups)
However, I do get updates from other sources so was aware of what has just happened.
It's absolutely and totally crazy and very, very destructive to any trust in their abilities to do anything.
This is the second recent tax policy u-turn announced within hours of a policy being announced (the other was about the tax treatment of 4 person cab pick-ups)
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