please help- letter from inland revenue compliance

sunflower_2 · 6 December 2004 at 3:44PM

i have today received a letter thanking me for finalising my 2003/2004 claim.

they now intend to carry out an enquiry to ensure that i have received the correct amount of credits!

they have asked for:
P60 for year 2003/2004
all payslips from April 2003 todate
contracts of employment for all jobs since April 2003
bank/building society statements from April 2003 todate!

i checked the year-end certificate thing - and it said please contact us if you earned more than £12329 during this period.

i didnt think for a second i would have done!
but when i checked the P60 thismorning, i earned £12933.
this was due to a few extra bonus payments on top of some overtime.

am so worried as it says i could be fined up to £3000 for fraud or even just negligence!

hav not stopped crying all morning - i feel like a criminal.

i thought i was doing the right thing by working as many hours as poss to pay my mortgage/bills and bring my young son up on my own !

some people hav no intention of working!
and they there are others who do fraud the system!!!

am totally gutted

have i been singled out? or do they spot check?
the letter seems so personal and scary

why do they want my contract of employment?
and bank statements from April 2003?
i dont even hav bank statements going back this far...

can anyone give me any advice?
please?

Fran · 6 December 2004 at 4:48PM

Sunflower,

It will probably be computer generated because the amount is over.

Give them a ring and explain the situation and see what they say. As it's the Inland Revenue, you will have to comply and let them have the info, but do ring them first. Let us know if you have any more complications.

sunflower_2 · 6 December 2004 at 5:08PM

thanks for the reply Fran
really appreciated

hav tried ringing but the "complaince officer" who signed the letter isnt in til tomorrow.

i would feel so bad if it is just a spot check, it just seems so official, like i have committed a crime.

i suppose in a way i have, because i didnt tell them i had earned the extra £600 last tax year.
but i didnt do it on purpose. i just didnt check (stupidly).

as it happens working that extra overtime could hav cost me
cos when i went on the entitled-to website it shows i have been overpaid by £700.
so i could have had an extra £100 for sitting at home...

i have even been practicing what i will say to the judge in court..... :-[

:-[ :-X :-/

Fran · 6 December 2004 at 5:20PM

Sunflower,

I'm sure it won't go to court. It's a shame about the overpayment though, it's a big minus regarding these tax credits and a lot of the time people don't understand whether the calculations from IR are correct or not.

irs101 · 6 December 2004 at 7:16PM

Sunflower

You won't have been overpaid by as much as £700 - the £12329 figure they gave you will include the £2,500 allowance you get compared to your 01/02 income. The online calculator you've used won't take this into account.

You should only have been overpaid by £223 (£12,933 minus £12,329 = £604 times 37% = £223). Of course, they may impose penalities and interest on top of this, but this is new territory - this sort of system has not existed before.

However I would hope they would be lenient - you are coming clean straight away, it's for a relatively small sum of money (compared to people who are intentionally ripping off the system) and it was clearly a mistake. My feeling is that they'll want to come to a settlement with you, chalk it up as a "hit" and move on to the real fraudsters. It is extremely unlikely to be taken to court. You have owned up to your mistake and it's not worth their time for such a small amount.

Best of luck.

irs

sunflower_2 · 6 December 2004 at 10:37PM

thanks 4 replies - i do feel a bit better now.

am just finding it hard to understand why on earth they would want to see 2 years worth of my bank statements???

whats it got to do with them how much my bills are?
or where i was shopping on a particular day etc etc?
i find this quite personal :-[

and contract of employment? (am thinking this is to make sure i am actually working?)

:-/

icklemoo11 · 7 December 2004 at 1:04AM

Don't worry too much, i think the IR do a percentage check. It would be impossible for them to confirm everyones circumstances so they pick people out randomly and unfortunately it is you! If you provide the docs required it shows you have nothing to hide and that you have made a genuine mistake with the income provided.

Good luck and keep ya chin up!

irs101 · 7 December 2004 at 11:10AM

IR do do random checks, but they also do specific checks. They will automatically match tax credit information against the other information they hold on you, and investigate any discrepancies. So for income, it's easy to cross-check with PAYE data. Obviously PAYE data is the most readily available - they won't have been able to do any checks on self-employed people yet, because they have until January to file their tax return.

In asking for bank statements, they'll be looking to see if you have any other sources of income that you haven't declared and they'll also be looking to see if you are living beyond your declared means. So make sure you don't give them the statement where you paid for your fleet of Ferraris

aml1977 · 27 November 2008 at 1:13PM

I too have had one of these letters

I did have £25000 in a seperate account which my uncle gave me to start up a business

I have now given him the money back in case they think i had a secret stash

When they see my statements and credit card bills they will see I owe alot more than this - so how do I prove it was not my money but money for a business.
will they know about this account?

[Deleted User] · 27 November 2008 at 2:35PM

aml1977 - giving the money back may have looked dodgier than having it in the first place.

If you were given the money to start a business then it is your money.

Incidentally, TCO dont care about how much money you have in the bank. They are only interested in the interest earned from this money.

TCO will ask for bank statements to check for interest earned and to see if you have any sort of financial ties with a partner. They will also be checking to make sure you are paid what you said you were and that there is no collusion between employer & employee to hide any income.

dawn_rose · 1 January 2009 at 10:10PM

i had a letter saying they were looking into what we had recieved for the first year after i had my daughter i havent heard anything since and that was ages ago. in all honesty i declared what little we had including my maternity allowance but im unsure if i put it in the smp box. (was all done a bit hastily as dd turned up early and i had ptsd after she was born) so im hoping no news is good news and that i dont owe them anything. do you think they would have asked for more information by now if the needed it id say it was prob at least 6 months ago the first letter? hope you get your sorted out soon its the last thing nyone needs.

please help- letter from inland revenue compliance

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free