Underpayment of Income Tax - Who is to blame?

Jollyjak

Ho Hum....Still waiting. Just allowing them to dig a bigger hole to extracate themselves from!

Pennywise

Jollyjak wrote: »

Ho Hum....Still waiting. Just allowing them to dig a bigger hole to extracate themselves from!

Don't hold your breath. I've just received a reply to a formal complaint made at the start of May, which was followed up by reminders. Never so much as an acknowledgement, let alone a proper reply, until now. And, true to form, they just sent a pro-forma reply which doesn't actually answer any of my complaints and it's clear that no-one bothered to read my complaint letter. So, they're getting another complaint now and the time on the clock is accumulating for the compensation they'll end up paying.

Jollyjak

It must have been a premonition - today I have had a reply to my letter(s) which were posted on 29 June (the reply was promised by 11 Aug 2011 - years are obviously an issue with HMRC!!). At long last, someone has looked at all the information (again - probably), and sent probably THE most confusing, badly written, grammatically incorrect and rambling letter yet!!

It tells me how the underpayment occurred (which I already knew and told them - they did not act on the information provided to them by my employers / pension providers). It then says "We are not saying that we never received the P46 just that we have no record of this or taking the necessary action if we had recieved it" (I supplied a letter from my pension provider saying they had informed HMRC on a particular date, etc).

There are then a few more paragraphs of random gobbledegook, before they tell me that I owe them another £1329.60 for the years 2010-11, bringing the total to £4560.80 that I owe them!!

Then next couple of paragraphs say that as they are reclaiming part of the tax for 2010/11 via 2011/12 tax codes, that they will not be trying to reclaim any of the outstanding amount. They also acknowledge that they have been a little bit bad in taking so long for acting / replying and that their employee who was nasty to me should not have been. They wont pay me any compensation (which I didn't ask for - only my expenses), but will send me a cheque for £30 to cover both costs and upset.

This is a very abridged precis and outcome of a 3 page letter from Edinburgh (as the Cardiff team asked them to help out!) that arrived on the same day that my Tax code was also increased in a totally separate letter as they recognised my union membership is tax deductable - and I didn't even tell them I had become a member - absolutely amazing!

I would like to sincerely thank all those who have given constructive assistance over the last few months, and to highlight to those who think that HMRC is always right - They are not!, and that perseverance pays off.

I have NEVER questioned the fact that the tax may have been owed - what I consistently said, is that I had supplied all the information that they required me to (many times now), I had provided my employer and pension provider with all the information which they required and should have passed to HMRC which was their responsibility to do so, and that I truly believed that my tax affairs were in order.

I am not sure if this should be linked to any other forums - it is not a 'Tax Rebate Success' so to speak, but for those in the know, please refer to my case if you wish to.

I truly hope that HMRC get the Leadership and Direction that it needs in order to provide a reliable and transparent service to the population of the UK and those who believe that as a Government organisation they should be able to 'get things right'.

After all - that is what and why we pay our taxes for!

Happy Jak (after a couple of glasses of wine!):beer: