Income tax snatch backs

Heather_Moggridge

Today I received a letter from the income tax pirates telling me I must repay nearly £800 tax for the last two years which I am supposed to have underpaid. I have been retired for nearly ten years and my finances havent altered in that time yet suddenly there is an error. How am I supposed to find that kind of money? Lets screw the tax paying pensioners who have worked all their lives and ignore the benefit cheats who I have been supporting all my life! There must be some kind of answer to this piracy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the new government for taking away my peace of mind in my retirement. Shall I cut back on my food bill? Or maybe my heating this winter? Its got to be one of them as I dont smoke, drink or gamble. Cant afford to!

Lokolo

Pretty sure the new government haven't had anything to do with the HMRC screw up....

And if you can't afford to smoke, drink, gamble etc. then maybe you should have saved harder whilst you were working eh?

And finally, your situation will have changed over the past few years, it's called your tax allowance. This is what has changed. If you give us details we might help, such as, whats your income, whats your tax code for past 2 years. Otherwise, if this is a vent, you are in the wrong place. (you want to go here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=82 )

Gertie_Walker

Instead of moaning, why not check whether the details on the tax computations are correct and then deal with any corrections necessary, or else ask yourslef why you have underpaid?

Pennywise

I'd agree with the others. Spend your time more productively by checking the demand, make sure they've got their sums right, understand what went wrong, and make sure that it's being corrected for the current year.

From the demands I've seen so far over the last few weeks, VERY FEW are actually correct, so there's a good chance that you don't owe as much as they say you do.

If you are wanting help here, then please give us some figures and someone will check them over for you. How much were your state pensions and occupational pensions for each tax year, did you have any other untaxed income (gross interest, rental income, etc).

Unless you think the figures are correct, don't just assume they're right and pay up. Ranting on a forum won't make the demands go away - checking and correcting, if necessary, may do.

chrismac1

Totally agree with last post, put the details on here and we can check if they are right. There's more than a 50-50 shot they are yet another error, based on the posts here and UK business forum involving the great PAYE fiasco. About 50% of the calculations have been right, some have had some obvious howlers in them....

antrobus

Lokolo wrote: »

Pretty sure the new government haven't had anything to do with the HMRC screw up....

Quite. Let us give credit where credit is due. (Cough, Gordon Brown).

But let us be rational about this. The first thing to do is to check that HMRC are correct in demanding £800. If necessary seek professional advice. CAB, even your local MP, it's what they're paid for. If it is correct, then seek to agree a repayment schedule with the tax man.