HMRC Late fees

tony_23

Hi,

I have been helping a friend with her old tax return for 2010/11 that she has only recently sent it off to HMRC.

As you can guess she has received a demand for £600 as it was well overdue.

The thing is she was employed for the whole period with a large company so they would have sorted tax etc as a result there is no tax due (total income was approx £3k a year.)

Is there anyway of getting this fine cancelled? Has anyone successfully done this?

Thank you

John_Pierpoint

When is the tax return covering letter dated?

Why did someone with an income less than their personal allowance suddenly get sent a full blown self assessment tax return out of the blue?

Why did the recipient stick the form behind the clock for months if not years? [I am being sympathetic because my sister did just that in the old days and eventually they put her on "emergency" tax just to jog her memory - guess who helped to sort out the mess?]

Is there something you have forgotten to mention - eg they got the wrong "Smith" at the wrong address?

Where is the 11/12 return - that will be overdue within a fortnight?

Did the initial penalty of £100 come with an appeal form?

This is turning into an expensive belated lesson about the facts of life:
Death and Taxes.

http://www.tax.org.uk/media_centre/LatestNews-migrated/ChangestoSA
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/penalties.htm#3

pjclar02

Hello there

Unless there is a reasonable excuse for not filing the return, then the penalty will stand regardless of the fact that no tax was due.

What is the reason behind the late filing?

Pennywise

pjclar02 wrote: »

Hello there

Unless there is a reasonable excuse for not filing the return, then the penalty will stand regardless of the fact that no tax was due.

Not necessarily at all. I'd back John's comments regarding why/how/when the tax return was issued.

If the friend didn't usually get a tax return and there was no reason for a tax return to be issued, then there's every chance that HMRC issued it in error (i.e. typed in wrong NI or UTR number or misunderstood a phone call/letter) and may be persuaded to cancel the whole thing thus removing the penalties. I've successfully helped a few people recently in exactly these circumstances.

If she did usually get a return or there is something different that triggered the issue of a return, then, far less chance to get the penalties reduced/removed unless there is a valid reason for it being late (i.e. serious long term illness).

Also, as John suggests, check the procedural issues - i.e. date of issue of the return, dates of issues of penalty notices and whether appeal instructions were included, correct address used, etc etc.

chrismac1

I agree the last post. In my experience the majority of these sorts of fines can end up being cancelled if you are persistent enough and don't let yourself get fobbed off with "form" letters generically spat out which make no reference to the person involved.

tony_23

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your responses.

The girl I am helping is really niave with tax and just forgot about it. Next thing she knew that she had to do one was when they sent her a penalty notice for £100 that she promptly paid. After she paid that she then asked me for my help.

She is now self employed from Sept 2011 and her tax return is already completed so should be no problems this year.