Plumbers safe tax plan

wife_on_a_mission

Hello I am looking for a bit of advice please

Basically a few days ago a letter landed on the doormat from the tax office. It was about the Plumbers safe tax plan whereby plumbers can 'put things right' if they have not paid the correct amount of tax.

Thinking it was just a standard letter I didnt give it much of a look but then after speaking to one of my husbands workmates we became a bit more concerned as he said that they were targeting specific people with the letter.

I looked up some stuff about it online and am now quite concerned as they appear to have only sent the letter out to a certain amount of people and some people are convinced that they have only sent it out to people they believe haven't paid teh correct amount of tax.

My husband is not self employed he works for a large energy supplier, he does not do any other work outside of his official work and he very often is working away from home so wouldn't even have the oppourtunity to anyway.

Part of my concern is that the old owner of our house was also a plumber and we recently found that for anything up to 12 months after we moved in he still had our address registered as his company address (we still get bills and debt collection letters addressed to him and his business now 4 years later).

Apart from that we can't see any reason why they would be looking at him. Hubby doesn't seem to concerned as he said he has done nothing wrong so he thinks it's just a mistake or he is one of the people they have apparently sent it to that doesn't owe money, but I have been quite worried and have been trying to get through to the helpline since they opened at 7.30am but the number just keeps coming up engaged.

Does anyone have any experience of this safe tax plan thing or is in the same boat?

wife_on_a_mission

Just managed to get through to a lovely man who was quite reassuring and said that as long as my husband has never been self employed then there shouldnt be a problem.

laticsforlife

Was it addressed to your husband?

As far as I knew the idea of this scheme was to target plumbers (and by that I mean self-employed plumbers) who may have 'not paid the right tax' or in other words, might have under-declared their earnings (shock horror!!). It would be the pre-cursor to a full tax enquiry into their affairs, but if your hubby is not s/e then this does not apply and his pay is reported by PAYE.

Nothing for you to worry about but I would still be concerned about your address being the registered office for the previous plumber as this could have credit issues should he say go bankrupt. It is worth making sure with Companies house that there is no company registered at your home.

jimmo

Plumbers appear to be the "flavour of the day" as far as HMRC is concerned. In my latter days at HMRC these sort of letters were just coming in and, really speaking, they are no more than junk mail.
The potential sting in the tail is that is that if your husband is fiddling and he gets caught then his failure to respond to the junk mail will count against him.
As long as he is not fiddling you can confidently consign the letter to the compost heap.

Cook_County

This amnesty is not just for plumbers. Anyone who owes tax can obtain the same reduced penalties if they file with HMRC under the plumbers amnesty.

heretolearn_2

The HMRC likes to pick a target and run blitz on them in this way. At the moment plumbers. Last year it was doctors.

If never self-employed don't worry about it - but if your address is being used by a company, get in touch with Companies House.