Need Advice Regarding £2743.93 "Overpayment" - HELP!

Horseunderwater

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tctmanual/TCTM04004.htm

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tctmanual/TCTM04001.htm
These are links to the TC manual on what to declare and how to do it.
I hope that this may prove useful in your fight.

kevmcfad

Received this letter from HMRC on Saturday 3rd November:

"Dear Mr McFadzean

Tax Credit Appeal Acknowledgment

On 10 October 2012 we received your appeal against the tax credits notice of decision dated 09 August 2012.

What Happens Next

We will review your appeal and aim to contact you by 04 April 2013. If we need any more information about the appeal, we will phone or write to you. Please do not contact us about the appeal before 04 April 2013.

Change of Circumstances

You must tell us, as soon as possible, about any change in circumstances.

Your sincerely,

Alison Farnworth"

enabledebra

If you are struggling with the rate of recovery of the other overpayment there is info here about how, and in what circumstances, you can ask them to look at how they are recovering the amount:

http://www.revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-to-deal-with-hmrc/dealing-with-debt/#Financial hardship in ongoing recovery cases

Edit - it would be a good idea to edit your last post to remove names.

kevmcfad

The issue I have is that there wasn't an overpayment. My income and work situation hasn't changed and I accidentally put my gross pay into the box instead of my net pay. The guy I spoke to at HMRC (within 30 days) even admitted that this prompted the "overpayment". I haven't been paid any tax credits since July 2011 (because they've been clawing back an overpayment fromt the previous year) so there is absolutely no way I could pay back even in installments.

enabledebra

I'm basing this on an understanding that you are not being paid currently because they are 'clawing back' an overpayment from a different year (10/11? or earlier) and that you are appealing against an overpayment relating to 11/12?

kevmcfad

Yes that's right

enabledebra

Ok- you can ask them not to stop all of your 12/13 money to repay the earlier overpayment if you fit the circumstances for them to consider this- see the link. This could mean payments start again at some level- it would take longer to repay but you would have less of a struggle.

Asking for this to be considered doesn't affect your challenge against the 11/12 overpayment decision.

kevmcfad

My wife and I both received "Final Tax Credit Decision for 06/04/2011 to 05/04/2012" letters today.

The letters to each of us states:
"Amount overpaid - £1646.35
Of this:
£268.93 has already been collected back from you.
£1377.01 has already been collected back from later award(s)
£0.41 will be collected back from future award(s)"

However the joint letter states:

"Overpayment
Up to 5 April 2012 - £1377.42
Of this
£53.89 has already been collected back from you
£0.41 will be collected from the rest of your payments for this award period
£1323.12 is an adjustment to put your record right."

I'm just not sure what this last statement means. Do I still owe them over £1300? Bearing in mind I haven't received any payments throughout this financial year because I made a mistake in the form (I stated my gross income instead of my net income) and at the end of the letter HMRC have informed me what I could expect to receive from the start of the next financial year.

ALSO it states that I have a potential payment of £2826 of child tax credits but they can't work out the exact amount until they receive our income details for 2012-13. Is this an underpayment?

Horseunderwater

Your current overpaymet is 41p and that will be recovered from your next payment of CTC/WTC as applicable.
Once you have your P60's and get your renewal pack letter - you can ring them up with your true income for this tax year and they will re calculate whether there is an underpayment or not. They are doing same to me. It does sound like there is a fair amount due. So you should hopefully get a nice lumps sum a few weeks after you renew.

missbunbury

I don't get it, wouldn't they have paid you less if you had overstated your income? I thought the self-employed were encouraged to overestimate in order to avoid overpayments?