Why does tax calculation take so long?
Discussion
The student loan company are exactly the same, my wife was trying to claim a refund as she overpaid last year. They said we can't do it until August when we get sent the data by HMRC. I thought the whole point of real time information was we didn't have to wait until 4months after year end.
I do paper returns for my mum . I have POA she lives in care with Dementia.
They have to be paper as we can't get her a government gateway account as she does not have the necessary forms of id .
I have done one each year for the past three years. Just yesterday they replied with the 2023/2024 finding. This includes tax she owes and the dates it must be paid by to avoid fines. Those dates are in 2025
They have to be paper as we can't get her a government gateway account as she does not have the necessary forms of id .
I have done one each year for the past three years. Just yesterday they replied with the 2023/2024 finding. This includes tax she owes and the dates it must be paid by to avoid fines. Those dates are in 2025
C69 said:
Huzzah said:
No this is the automated HMRC system.
Seems odd - this is for personal self-assessment?Whenever I do an online self-assessment it lets me look at the tax calculation before submitting the return.
Huzzah said:
No each yr HMRC generate a new tax code and refund/payment based on my previous tax yr. No self assessment or documents from me, it just happens. Most years it seems to take 6-8 months from the financial year end.
You say "no self assessment" so are you PAYE only? Do you have any other sources of income? Do you get any untaxed benefits through your work (PHI, company car)?I think one of the reasons is they wait for every single financial institution in the country to send over any data they might have on you after the end of the tax year. So if you have earned 20p of interest over the personal savings allowance, for example, they can use that information to f
k up your tax code for the next 2-3 years. But mainly it's just because HMRC are a bunch of s. 
k up your tax code for the next 2-3 years. But mainly it's just because HMRC are a bunch of s. Countdown said:
Huzzah said:
No each yr HMRC generate a new tax code and refund/payment based on my previous tax yr. No self assessment or documents from me, it just happens. Most years it seems to take 6-8 months from the financial year end.
You say "no self assessment" so are you PAYE only? Do you have any other sources of income? Do you get any untaxed benefits through your work (PHI, company car)?[quote=Huzzah
Retired so state pension, private pension, taxable savings interest.
[/quote]
Me too. Retired 21 years, similar income sources. I do a SA return every tax year, then before submitting the final version in a couple of minutes I get to see on HMRC's website their tax calculation for any amount due, and if I agree I submit my final SA form. Simples! I suggest you file a SA form each year, it's not really complicated for your stated income sources.
R.
Retired so state pension, private pension, taxable savings interest.
[/quote]
Me too. Retired 21 years, similar income sources. I do a SA return every tax year, then before submitting the final version in a couple of minutes I get to see on HMRC's website their tax calculation for any amount due, and if I agree I submit my final SA form. Simples! I suggest you file a SA form each year, it's not really complicated for your stated income sources.
R.
Although not exactly the same as the above scenarios people don’t appreciate how much manual work often goes into accounting.
I used to build software for complex fund accounting and investor tax treatment. Even though in theory the software could do it all at the click of a button, the reality is there are always manual workarounds, manual journals, sanity checks, edge cases, waiting for data/info from third parties, etc.
With my pension provider in Australia it always takes them at least a couple of months after year end to release their end of year statements, and they don’t use the software I worked on, so it’s not just our software!
I used to build software for complex fund accounting and investor tax treatment. Even though in theory the software could do it all at the click of a button, the reality is there are always manual workarounds, manual journals, sanity checks, edge cases, waiting for data/info from third parties, etc.
With my pension provider in Australia it always takes them at least a couple of months after year end to release their end of year statements, and they don’t use the software I worked on, so it’s not just our software!
Imagine you're trying to run HMRC,
A huge scramble of incoming returns just ahead of the October and January deadlines.
Vast amount of phone enquiries just ahead of the April, October and January deadlines.
All the staff want to go on holiday in the summer and over Christmas/New Year.
Leaving that aside, they just love the "computer says" nature of online Self Assessment. Make the customer do the work.
Business returns? They don't even bother to make a system that works, leaving everyone to go out and buy so-called bridging software.
It's so much easier to make taxpayers do the work and then just let the big computer in the sky look for anomalies, while plucking out 1 in 10,000 at random for the odd fishing enquiry.
A huge scramble of incoming returns just ahead of the October and January deadlines.
Vast amount of phone enquiries just ahead of the April, October and January deadlines.
All the staff want to go on holiday in the summer and over Christmas/New Year.
Leaving that aside, they just love the "computer says" nature of online Self Assessment. Make the customer do the work.
Business returns? They don't even bother to make a system that works, leaving everyone to go out and buy so-called bridging software.
It's so much easier to make taxpayers do the work and then just let the big computer in the sky look for anomalies, while plucking out 1 in 10,000 at random for the odd fishing enquiry.
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