Important info for Tax Credits from your p60

sillymoo_2

Had the shock of my life the other week when I got my p60 as although I knew I'd done some extra overtime throughout year didn't realise it had amounted to THAT much. With a heavy heart I telephoned the Tax credits to let them know the amount knowing full well that it was above what I was allowed and would consequently have to pay some back. They sent me a report saying I'd have to pay back over £800....gulp....so I looked again at my p60.....and lo and behold although Tax credits are now paid directly into your bank they WERE paid through your employer and my employer a County Council with thousands of workers, included it in the final amount. After deducting over £2000 I am now just on my limit and should not have to pay any back.
Just wanted to warn everyone, coz I've given this amount as my true amount earned for years, and consequently could have been UNDERPAID by Tax credits, but this year have saved myself over £800 by not having to pay them back!!
There must be hundreds of thousands of workers in the same position!!

fatblokexl

the declaration of income for tax credit purposes is reasonably clear in the notes section. it says deduct any wtc payments fron your total for the year. you can deduct any SMP paid in that year as well up to a max of £2600.

donnalove

we did this in january for 2004-2005 income as i was studing hubby's p60's and looking at previous years and thought his income was high,it never clicked before. we had gave that income on his review form may 2005.so i rang tax credits office and they told me to deduct the amount of paid tax credits(which were overpayments as hubby shouldn't have had tax credits).
so they took his income down by £1200 odd for that year.

a month ago we had a letter from investigations saying our claim was being investigated cos they had final income as £.... and the inland revenue had £..... which was higher than tax credits.
so in other words they think we are trying to fiddle them.
i rang him and explained that i had only just changed that income and why we had, but that our award was based on the higher figure and our award would have been correct as that is what we gave them in finalizing last year

he said he understood and would contact hubby's employer(now ex employer) to see if that is what she had done.
i have not heard anything as yet but not too worried as i know the award was made on the higher figure.

so in deducting the tax credits it is causing an investigation cos of the diff between inland revenue and taxcredits amounts surely they should be able to see on there systems that oh yes such and such had this much tax credit.
what happens if we start re contributing to hubby's pension and take this off next year(we stopped it due to iva)is this gonna cause another investigation cos of the diff between inland rev and them..... so much time wasted.

fatblokexl

i believe investigations are carried out only if certain discrepancies arise (i.e level of difference between what the employer has told HMRC about and what you put on your declaration). I f the employer has treated the tax credit payments in a way that is contrary to the right way it may flag on HMRC systems in this way.

TCO know that pers pen conts, wtc, smp, prof org pmts can be deducted and expect you to have done that when the declaration is made to them.

there are random checks also, to catch those unsavoury characters who don't declare true income.

so much time wasted??????? if it stops fraud on any level this is good for HMRC and more importantly for the tax payer