Whose liable

sueban

Hi would love help please. Unfortuantely my father passed away in October 2009. Then out of the blue after the announcement of all the wrong tax codes my mum receives 2 letters from the Inland Revenue address to my late father say he had underpaid in tax year 2007-2008 - 2009-2010 and that monies are owed. There are 2 questions if anybody can help.
1. Is my mum liable for my dad's tax?
2. As my dad was retired and receving a state and private pension which solely belonged to him how are we to know if Inland Revenue are correct at that this money is owing.

This has caused my mum so much stress because she has harldy had time to greive and secondly because she doesn't have the money.

Sue

Mikeyorks

sueban wrote: »

1. Is my mum liable for my dad's tax?
2. As my dad was retired and receving a state and private pension which solely belonged to him how are we to know if Inland Revenue are correct at that this money is owing.

1. No. But his estate is. Did he leave assets that were other than joint? Was Probate obtained?

2. You have the P800s. And someone should have notified his death to HMRC? His personal representative / executor needs to resolve his tax affairs alongside any other outstanding issues. For someone on PAYE ..... it's fairly unusual to have an underpayment in the year of death. As there will be 6 months of unused allowances on the dates you give.

sueban

thanks very much for your quick reply. No there was no probabte as my father had a will which just left the only thing that had which is the property my mother still lives in which they jointly owned. I'm pretty sure my mum notified them as they have reduced her to tears on several ocassion, and she then also went through with them what she now gets from my dads private pension so they could give her a tax code. But you help is very much appreciated.

Mikeyorks

There's a link here which covers the basics. But you'll need to read most of it - and out on a couple of links to get the full drift. HMRC will normally write off any outstanding tax if there were no personal (as opposed to joint) assets. But you / your Mother should (already have?) complete an R27

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/bereavement/index.htm

Hawkeye4aneye

Your father's State and Private Pension were obviously paid into a bank account, was this a single account in his name or a joint account with your mother?

If a single account and there was a balance at the date of death then the HMRC may take this into account. Also if it was a joint account they may take half of that balance at death into account.

However there was a funeral account to pay no doubt so this should also be taken into account in any cash balances that the HMRC calculate.

As already mentioned the tax year of death 2009-2010 there is a FULL YEAR of allowances to take into account so hopefully there will be no liability for that year, indeed there may be a refund for that year which could be offset against any liabilty for the previous years.

You may have to complete tax returns (signed by the Executor) for all the years in question so you will need the forms issued by your fathers Pension provider and details of the State Pension for the years in question.