Tax credit investigation...

Hay_2

I was "randomly" selected for investigation last year and it was a worrying time...ALTHOUGH rather suprisingly the IR lady who I dealt with throughout could not have been more helpful.I was confident the salary details I had given was right so I supplied the requested info and basically complied with their requests and eventually it was closed and taken no further as my figures were correct.BUT it was pretty stressful so I hope yours all turn out as well as mine x:beer:

dorry_2

Hi there. Don't be too put off by HMRC's approach. They have to have a robust regime as there are thousands of people out there deliberately fiddling the system. You would be better to send them the P60's you have and get the matter sorted out. When they have them, get them to phone you and discuss where the differences arise. They are human you know! It's not a game of show and tell - it's a factual matter. You say you and your partner earned X and they think you earned Y. If you don't co-operate they wil simply make the decision that their figures are corect and amend your award accordingly (and they do have the right to do that after giving you reasonable time to comply with their requests). It's not inconceivable that HMRC have their figures wrong and you can help them identify if this is the case by sending them your P60's (keep a copy). If you are awkward and do not co-operate (and you are in the wrong of course), any financial penalty that may be due will be significantly larger (don't worry - you may not get one anyway - depends on the amount involved). You can make a request to see what they have on you under the Data Protection Act (I believe this applies to paper records too). You are privvy to most of what they hold but not all. What you aren't allowed to see wouldn't be very interesting anyway, probably just a comparison of what you declared you earned and what they think you did. From what you describe you've received, it sounds like they're just looking at income. Yes the status quo prevails until the matter is settled though if you procrastinate too much they will make a decision on the best information available. If the amounts differ vastly, they have the right to reduce your current payments if they believe they are paying you significantly too much. If they do make a decision that you disagree with, you have the right of apeal though as I say, this is a factual matter and both you and HMRC should be able to agree on the figures after you have discussed this with them. Common places where folk go wrong are declaring the wrong year's income (check what year they are looking into), omitting second employments or pensions that people receive, not declaring taxable benefits such as company cars, not declaring taxable state benefits such as jobseekers allowance or incapacity benefits (only certain kinds), deducting the tax figure from their gross income or even just picking up the wrong figure from their P60. Don't feel too targetted by this enquiry, HMRC do tens of thousands of these each year and it's a good job they do. Trust me i know! :-)

evie451

Dorry
I am in the same situation 'under investigation' do you have any idea why they want to see my credit card bills? sorry for the hijacking

dorry_2

evie451 wrote:

Dorry
I am in the same situation 'under investigation' do you have any idea why they want to see my credit card bills? sorry for the hijacking

Sorry I can't go into why they ask for them - it may help people who are fiddling their tax credits. Suffice it to say that if you aren't on the fiddle, you've nothing at all to worry about and shouldn't worry about sending these details. You can blank out the account number on statements if you are worried about someone trying to steal your identity.

Remember that whilst the vast majority of HMRC's tax credits investigation work is targetted at those who they know/suspect of fiddling (or who have made serious errors), they do some random investigations too, so the government know what the overall level of fraud is on the system. Annoying if you get one but unfortunately necessary. Your investigation may just be one of those.