Appealing self assessment penalties
Discussion
This isn't for me but for a friend I'm trying to help out. He has got himself in a bit of a mess with the tax office, not that serious but I've just logged on with him and gone through his self assessments from the last few years, there are all sorts of small penalties mainly from paying the tax payments late and some interest. He has just made a lump sum payment and he still owes about £1000 which I've told him to set a DD payment up for as soon as possible.
The penalties and interest total for the last 5 or 6 years is about £1300. So he only owes these penalties now in reality, all the tax is paid. Is there any point in him pleading with the tax office to get the penalties reduced or is he just pissing in the wind with it and should bite the bullet and be a bit more organised in the future.
Its not like he is in hardship or anything, most of the penalties have come about because he is the sort of person that just says "I'll do it tomorrow" and then never does.
The penalties and interest total for the last 5 or 6 years is about £1300. So he only owes these penalties now in reality, all the tax is paid. Is there any point in him pleading with the tax office to get the penalties reduced or is he just pissing in the wind with it and should bite the bullet and be a bit more organised in the future.
Its not like he is in hardship or anything, most of the penalties have come about because he is the sort of person that just says "I'll do it tomorrow" and then never does.
If he just hasn't bothered file/pay on time then HMRC are unlikely to look favourably on this and the charges are due. They are being more lenient for the current filing due to Covid so if this has caused him some difficulty with 19/20 filing he may have a case there. If you don't ask you don't get, but be he should be prepared to just pay as it's his own tardiness by the sounds of things.
Unbelievably there is only one late filing fee, the rest are just interest payments and late payment penalties. I don't think he really understands how it all works and to be truthful even I was staggered when I saw the cost of the interest payments. I get nothing on my saving account but one interest payment I saw was about £86, how do the tax get away with such high interest charges when the rest of us get nothing? Especially when I saw a news article recently about how the tax office went after an illegal loan shark that charged 30% APR.
scottyp123 said:
Unbelievably there is only one late filing fee, the rest are just interest payments and late payment penalties. I don't think he really understands how it all works and to be truthful even I was staggered when I saw the cost of the interest payments. I get nothing on my saving account but one interest payment I saw was about £86, how do the tax get away with such high interest charges when the rest of us get nothing? Especially when I saw a news article recently about how the tax office went after an illegal loan shark that charged 30% APR.
You’re not loaning or borrowing off the HMRC when paying late. You just aren’t paying what’s owed when it’s due. So it’s a punitive rate to punish you. It’s not hard to understand that is it? TTmonkey said:
scottyp123 said:
Unbelievably there is only one late filing fee, the rest are just interest payments and late payment penalties. I don't think he really understands how it all works and to be truthful even I was staggered when I saw the cost of the interest payments. I get nothing on my saving account but one interest payment I saw was about £86, how do the tax get away with such high interest charges when the rest of us get nothing? Especially when I saw a news article recently about how the tax office went after an illegal loan shark that charged 30% APR.
You’re not loaning or borrowing off the HMRC when paying late. You just aren’t paying what’s owed when it’s due. So it’s a punitive rate to punish you. It’s not hard to understand that is it? scottyp123 said:
TTmonkey said:
scottyp123 said:
Unbelievably there is only one late filing fee, the rest are just interest payments and late payment penalties. I don't think he really understands how it all works and to be truthful even I was staggered when I saw the cost of the interest payments. I get nothing on my saving account but one interest payment I saw was about £86, how do the tax get away with such high interest charges when the rest of us get nothing? Especially when I saw a news article recently about how the tax office went after an illegal loan shark that charged 30% APR.
You’re not loaning or borrowing off the HMRC when paying late. You just aren’t paying what’s owed when it’s due. So it’s a punitive rate to punish you. It’s not hard to understand that is it? I hit an £800 penalty overturned. I simply could not log onto the Sa site. They had issued two accounts, and kept sending me the new password for an account number that I hadn’t been given. Took ages on the phone to get it sorted though.
If your mate is just a bit tardy in paying, he won’t get a reversal.
If your mate is just a bit tardy in paying, he won’t get a reversal.
Personally I don't think its worth bothering with the more I think about it, he was a bit annoyed because it looks like a lot but £1000 over 5 years is only about £4 a week, I lose more than that when I forget to pick up my change that I leave on a customers side (I do this regularly for some reason).
I'll bet if he says he didn't really know what he was doing then they will want to look at what else he might have got wrong in the tax returns.
I'll bet if he says he didn't really know what he was doing then they will want to look at what else he might have got wrong in the tax returns.
scottyp123 said:
Unbelievably there is only one late filing fee, the rest are just interest payments and late payment penalties. I don't think he really understands how it all works and to be truthful even I was staggered when I saw the cost of the interest payments. I get nothing on my saving account but one interest payment I saw was about £86, how do the tax get away with such high interest charges when the rest of us get nothing? Especially when I saw a news article recently about how the tax office went after an illegal loan shark that charged 30% APR.
Late payment rate is currently 2.6%. The most it has been in the last 20 years is 8.5%. It’s sort of meant to encourage people to pay more quickly I guess.There's no comparison between your situation and the OP's friend. What happened to you is normal. However no-one will ever get a penalty for lateness and a load of interest rescinded unless they have a pretty heavy duty excuse. And that'd just be for one year. An appeal is useless in their circumstances.
Eric Mc said:
This guy has no grounds for an appeal so he would be wasting his time.
That's fair enough then, I thought there may be a human element to them, the sort that says go on then but don't do it again. I know the tax are a lot more tolerant than the VAT.Do you agree that it may bring unintended consequences against him as well.
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