HMRC have no record of my payment!!

Mikeyorks

chrismac1 wrote: »

I used to run the finances of an £80m business.

HMRC are paid - on average - just over £2Bn per day. 'Your' business doesn't even register on that scale.

We called the customer and asked them which account they thought they were paying.

On a peak SA day HMRC have up to 0.5M payments in process. And that level of activity is fairly constant for close to 3 weeks.

'Phone them' ..... in your dreams. It isn't only payslips missing from cheques .... a lot of them Drafts with no audit trail. But also references missing from CHAPS and Faster Payments.

As most 'accountants', you are clueless as to the scale of the operation.

Stephen_Leak

The payment slip was probably the one on the P254. That's filled in by them (I've just double checked mine!) so, even if the OP didn't notice the required "HM Revenue & Customs only <NI number>" format for the cheque, all the clues should've been there when they opened the envelope.

I'm sorry, but there's no excuse. The numbers are irrelevant. They should get it right, first time and every time. They'd be fast enough to come down on us, if we don't.

Mikeyorks

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

The payment slip was probably the one on the P254.

There is no P254 provided with a P800.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payinghmrc/taxcode-vdp.htm#2

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payinghmrc/taxcode-vdp.htm#3

chrismac1

Scale of operation is no excuse for pants performance. None at all. How many mobile phone users would Vodafone have if they were as rubbish as HMRC?

Sensible_Jess

Mikeyorks wrote: »

There is no 'slip' with the P800. As it is not an invitation to make payment. And if you sent it recorded then you would presumably have an address!

Most underpayments are coded out. Those which are not, because they're generally above £3k they will write to you regarding payment. As it clearly stated in the Notes you received with the P800.

I received a seperate letter to the P800 with a payment slip to send to HMRC with payment. This had no 'number' on it (P123 or whatever), hence my referring to the P800 so that folks would get an idea of what I meant about payment.
Does that clear things up for you? It still doesn't alter the fact that despite filling in the cheque with the correct details, enclosing the filled in slip with my cheque and sending it to the correct address given, they appear to have lost my money and are demanding it again with threats of penalties and interest charges.

I had an address I sent the cheque recorded so I knew it got there OK. When the cheque was cashed I then disposed of the proof of delivery details from royal mail as I considered the matter settled. In the normal world, it would be. Payment received = settled.
Little did I know then that my money appears to have gone into a black hole and not to pay my outstanding tax at HMRC.


Back to those who have offered helpful advice:)
suso - yes phoning this morning just as they opened reduced the waiting time to about 20 minutes, joy!

Pennywise - Just as you predicted the person on the phone
couldn't help me and said they would pass it on to another department.
However, she did say that they should have contacted me to confirm receipt of the payment. Interesting...
I am going to follow this up in a letter, as per your advice.

Stephen Leak - I totally agree, they should get it right every time. This isn't a one-man operation from a shed, it's their job and someone has messed up.
What's appalling is is that I had a deadline to pay (which I met) and they have waited WEEKS to follow the supposed 'non payment' up. So what was the point in paying on time? I may as well have ignored them and sat on the money for a few more weeks:cool:

Dave101t

ask to go on self assessment, they made me do it because i was abroad for a few months, ever since, all my records (and ability to record payments) are online.

pelirocco

They have a habit of losing payments , they mislaid £25k of our companies money once ! They have a very antiquated accounting program and god help you if they send you a statement its very difficult to follow . Luckily paying money to anyone leaves such a good paper trail it can always be sorted out

Mikeyorks

Sensible_Jess wrote: »

I received a seperate letter to the P800 with a payment slip to send to HMRC with payment.
Does that clear things up for you?

Indeed - it always helps if you give the right picture.

This had no 'number' on it (P123 or whatever), hence my referring to the P800 so that folks would get an idea of what I meant about payment.

It did have a number on it - the P254 now referred to several times. It should have also had an addressed envelope to Bradford BD99 1YY. Which is one of the many postcodes for the Accounts Office (Shipley) where HMRC process all cheque payments.

they appear to have lost my money and are demanding it again with threats of penalties and interest charges.

They haven't lost your money .... but it clearly hasn't got to your PAYE record. And they can't charge you penalties or interest without first sending you an SA Return. The informal PAYE assessment on a P800 doesn't support either penalties or interest. Which is why - when it's above £3k and can't be coded out - it's preferable to make a voluntary payment(s) as it avoids both.
Your money will be in a suspense account as a P254 is always processed in to there. But one suspects it didn't have the NINO on it if it hasn't been routed to your record.

However, she did say that they should have contacted me to confirm receipt of the payment

Pretty stupid. The receipt is via it satisfying the underpayment on your PAYE record ..... which it clearly has not yet done.

Sensible_Jess

Mikeyorks wrote: »

It did have a number on it - the P254 now referred to several times. It should have also had an addressed envelope to Bradford BD99 1YY. Which is one of the many postcodes for the Accounts Office (Shipley) where HMRC process all cheque payments..

Sorry to disappoint you but I have both the original (minus the payment slip) and the one I got yesterday right in front of me and there is no P number of any kind. Maybe it's written in invisible ink that only Taxmen can see?:rotfl:

Edit -- I have found the number! It's right at the bottom left on the detachable payslip. Not anywhere on the rest of the form though.
Also no pre adressed envelope. Clearly hard times at HMRC....

AND - the address given to send payment to is not the same as yours above - My form says Bradford BD98 1YY.

So - Are you wrong or are they?

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Pretty stupid. The receipt is via it satisfying the underpayment on your PAYE record ..... which it clearly has not yet done.

If I ring tomrrow I'll probably get a completely different answer from a different person. I'm only relaying what the one I spoke to today said and wouldn't like to pass judgement on them, unlike some.

amiehall

It is obvious that YOU would only have got a receipt if they knew the money related to your record. If they knew the money related to you then they'd have credited it to you and cleared the underpayment.

So I'm not sure what the point of talking about whether you had a receipt or not is. If you got a receipt and still didn't have the money credited, that would be flipping weird.