The inland revenue

[Tommy2holes]

I was wondering if anyone has had the same sort of problem.

About 4 years ago i got a tax return out of the blue in the post. Im PAYE and have been since about 2000. I rang them to ask why i was asked to fill out a tax return and was told it was sent in error and thought no more of it.

About a year later i get another tax return and a fine for £500 which i refused to pay as i had been told to disregard. Again i contacted them and after numerous phone calls got told to fill out the tax return. Again i refused as im not self employed and said as im paye why should i have to give them paperwork to tell them what they already know.

I sent a letter to this effect and didnt hear anything for ages.

Yesterday i get a letter through telling me i owe £5000

How the feck can i owe £5000 when i havent been self employed and have been paye the whole time?

Im getting a bit concerned. I held on the phone for over an hour yesterday to speak to them before giving up.

 

[prawntobewild]

Anyone can get a tax return (even in error) - the law says you have to complete it & unless you have it writing to not complete they are going to generate these fines.
With regard to your i'm sure genuine comments about paye being your only source of income - it could be that an individual has large savings/dividends/pensions/benefits/capital gains/rentals or other income that may envoke a tax liability & again legally HMRC are entitled to ask.
I suggest that you correspond with them immediately - telephone calls are all well & good but you cannot rely on the person on the phone to either update records nor can you rely on what they have told you.

If you do nothing they may well threaten to send someone round to your house - i'm not trying to scare you but that will eveuntually happen.

From experience I find that once you write to HMRC & establish a contact (ie get a name off their reply) you can then start calling them but try to follow this up with a letter if possible.

I should also say that there are plenty of reasonable & sensible HMRC staff out there & you will find one eventually.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Always go with a paper trail where anything as important as this is concerned, and send it recorded if necessary.

 

[Kent Shrimper]

You don't mess about with the tax man!! Just ask Ronald

 

[Holy Joe]

Just becuase you're PAYE doesn't mean you don't have to fill in a tax return.

 

[prawntobewild]

Re your original post - the reason they are asking you for £5k is probably due to fines for not filling the return from 4 years ago .

 

[Tommy2holes]

But my point is why would you get sent a tax return in the first place if the people that sent it to you can see every penny you earn and they are the ones taxing you.

Its like they want to know the answer to there own question. I dont have savings isa's or any thing like that nor do i have any extra income i just work for the nhs and pay monthly.

There must be millions of people out there not declaring all sorts to the tax man yet for some reason they decide to target people who are already paying the correct tax code.

I will send them some mail again this week.

 

[prawntobewild]

I can give you a couple of reasons - They may have been given your name by someone & want you to confirm your income & "come clean" about anything else that may or may not be relevant.
- May be completely random to make sure that the whole system is working.

Hope you get it sorted out - if you get someone with any common sense you will get a "do it or else" deadline for the outstanding return - in exchange for cancellation of the penalty. The fact that you have written to them & they have failed to reply to you will count in your favour.

Just to get it into perspective I have actually had a call from someone today who had no idea that they should be declaring their Rental Income & that they need to fill in a return - it's more common than you may think.

 

[A Century United]

They don't have or check every single detail about you. PAYE is simply the Government's way of making employers do some of their paperwork for them. You are trusting your employer to have got your tax completely right, and there is no guarantee they have. As has been said, filling in a tax return is a legal obligation, and you may find that far from being bang on with your tax (or owing, as they are suggesting) you might be due a rebate.