Esc a19

covrufc1

I am hoping someone can give me some advice here. I'm certainly no tax expert but have strong feelings on the below situation. I could really do with some help and some people on this forum obviously know what they are talking about and i'm getting more and more engrossed in this subject the more i read about it.
I have 2 tax underpayments against me sent from the Inland Revenue on P800's. This is a £1900 underpayment for 2007-2008 and a £1200 for 2008-2009. Bearing in mind i have been in the same job as PAYE since 2005.
According to the IR i had a second income in 2008-09 that bought in additional earnings of just over £5k that year. I questioned this with the IR and they sent me the details (wouldnt tell me over the phone). Turns out this additional earning was the payout from a pension fund i had with a previous company a few years before that folded. They gave me a lump sum of around £4.5k and the form the IR sent me showed i was taxed around £600 on that amount. I am a 40% tax bracket earner so i can see that is not enough but as i dont do self assessment tax returns i fail to see how in this day and age the information received from the pension company could not allow the IR to add this amount to my P60 and tax accordingly the following year via my tax code. Do i have a case for ESC A19?

The 2nd claim against me was due to a change of circumstances in Dec 2006 that they had not been informed of. The only change in circumstances at that time was a company car i took with my role within the company. I can see this on my end of year P11D. They claim they should have been made aware before this and checking through old paperwork i can find a change in tax code letter from the IR in Feb 2007 clearly showing the car. Do you think i have a case for ESC A19 here?

Pennywise

To be honest, I don't think you've a case on either situation.

In the first, HMRC wouldn't have known about the second source of income until long after the end of the tax year when they received the P14 from the payer.

In the second, it seems they did issue a new tax code to reflect the car, but your employer didn't apply it. Again, not HMRC's fault.

All that HMRC have done wrong has been late in reconciling your records and sending you the tax bill. They have had a couple of years where they didn't do the reconciliation on time, but have now done it a year or two later than normal.

Would you have felt any better if they'd sent you the demands a year or two earlier? The fact remains that you didn't pay enough tax - OK, through no fault of your own, but neither was it the fault of the HMRC. All they can be blamed for is being slow/late in telling you.

The ESC is more for when they repeat a mistake year after year - ie if you'd had a pension from, say, 2005, and HMRC received notification when it started and then P14's every year since from the payer, and completely ignored the information, year after year.

By all means, there's no harm in spending half an hour and a postage stamp to make a claim - depending on exactly who told HMRC what and when they told them, you may get lucky, but it really will depend on the exact facts of your case as per their files.

covrufc1

Hi, thanks for taking the time out to respond. Much appreciated.
I did think that was the whole idea of the ASC A19 to be honest. The information has been provided to HMRC but they failed to act on it within the 12 month period of the end of that tax year. These claims are 2 and 3 years old. I'm not denying i dont owe the tax but i feel it is not my fault, all the info has been provided and probably due to a failure in their IT system (which is what the whole fiasco centres around) they are not trying to claim back underpaid that should have been paid 2 & 3 years ago. And yes i would have preferred them to do it then. Firstly i may not have noticed it if it was being collected in my tax code and secondly, i will certainly miss it now with the cost of living so much higher than it was 3 years ago ! I've just booked a family holiday and i am not willing to cancel it and use that money to pay off outstanding tax payments from 2-3 years ago if i feel the error belongs to the HMRC.

pchelpman

Pennywise is, of course, fully correct in everything and, yes, you can TRY ESCA19 if you wish but tread carefully.

I have an additional worry.

You say you are a 40% taxpayer, that you have benefits (the mention of P11D) and that you have received those additional taxable payments.

You may also receive interest on savings, dividend income and/or other forms of taxable income.

You also say you don't file self assessment Tax Returns.

That concerns me a little.

You don't want the Revenue going further and accusing you of not filing Returns voluntarily when you should have done so.

I don't know all the facts, obviously, but the Revenue may flag this as an issue if they examine more closely.

That would only make things worse.

sunshinetours

First one - not a chance. Its down to you to notify of any additional untaxed income and the papers you would have received from teh pension company would have indicated further tax liabilities MAY fall due

Second one - well technically your comapny should have done a P46 (Car) and filed at HMRC but as they have changed your coding already previously I assume they messed this up? Little chance IMO but more chance than with the first one

As above just be careful if you are 40% tax payer throughout those periods that they don't decide to open an enquiry as they will and do check bank interest information for instance