PAYE self-assessment help

[andyc11]

Hi, I m employed and all salary goes through PAYE. For the last few years, as my salary exceeded the stated thresholds, I ve submitted a return and paid the tax. I ve just found out that the threshold for tax year 23-24 for individuals whose only income was taxed through PAYE was raised to £150,000 and for 24-25 there is no threshold.

Whilst my salary was under the 23-24 threshold, I did file and pay, and HMRC have sent messages stating I need to file and pay for 24-25 tax year. Looks like I need to inform HMRC, but just wondering if anyone knows why they accepted my return for 23-24 (and payment) when all income was declared as PAYE and in line with my P60?

Edit: I don’t meet any other criteria for filing a self-assessment per the HMRC online checker.

Thanks,

Andy

[plynchy]

I'm in a similar position and submitted a 24-25 return purely to find out exactly what I owed, pay it, and not have HMRC rip the arse out of my tax code for the following year.

I'll likely do the same next year as well.

[Blown2CV]

they're a bunch of fkwits, and it will be virtually impossible to challenge, so if they asked you to do it you probably just need to do it.

[jonwm]

I thought I was the only one doing self assesment to stop HMRC totally ruining my tax code every year, I'm not over £100k either generally. Unfortunately this year my annual bounus got paid a month late so will bugger next year's return up

[Blown2CV]

No I think it’s quite common but you can minimise the likelihood of needing it.

If you get a bonus and it’s quite unpredictable then it’s quite hard for them to get the info to get it right in year. You have to submit estimated earnings in the portal as soon as you start the tax year. I always used to estimate OTE so if I’m having a bad year I get some back and if I’m having a good year I won’t mind throwing a bit extra in cash. That might avoid doing SA if you’re under 150k but typically you might need to do one anyway. At least it wouldn’t need an accountant for complexity reasons inherently.

Now I’m a contractor so I just submit as if I’m working every possible billable day and then I always get money back. However the situation is more complex as I have business expenses and suchlike that I could chuck in using a p87 but prefer to just pay an accountant to sort it all as I can’t be arsed.

No the HMRC carrying over allowances from one tax year to the next… that’s harder to control and pisses me off a lot. Resulted in me owning a few grand last year which they forced me to pay cash as I left my job.

[Sheepshanks]

andyc11 said:

……but just wondering if anyone knows why they accepted my return for 23-24 (and payment) when all income was declared as PAYE and in line with my P60?

Edit: I don t meet any other criteria for filing a self-assessment per the HMRC online checker.

I guess once they send you the letter telling you to do a tax return then you have to do it, and they will act on it - even if you had nothing to add and the tax paid was spot on.

You’re supposed to keep an eye on things and if you don’t need to do self-assessment then you are required to tell by 31st Jan of the current tax year.

[Blown2CV]

This situation is the other way round though. Tax office hasn’t asked for self assessment, the individuals are just knowing that things will get messed up if they don’t. It’s happened to me for a long time.

[Eric Mc]

Sheepshanks said:

I guess once they send you the letter telling you to do a tax return then you have to do it, and they will act on it - even if you had nothing to add and the tax paid was spot on.

You re supposed to keep an eye on things and if you don t need to do self-assessment then you are required to tell by 31st Jan of the current tax year.

You can ask them to cancel the requirement to complete a tax return if you can explain to them why you don't need to.