Inland revenue

cjbaps

My partner has a £6000 debt with the Inland revenue from when previously self employed. He is now working, albeit part time on PAYE. The Inland revenue are after full payment (as you can imagine) even though he has made an offer of £400 per month. Does anyone have any experience with them, and are their rules much different from other debts? I imagine they are but need advice soon! HELP!!!! He can't get a loan, as his credit is poor (he has 1 CCJ), and mine is rubbish too!

cjbaps

Many thanks for that - from me AND my other half - he is pleased to hear that there has been negotiations by people in the past. He applied for a loan and Citi financial have approaved a £6000 loan at an interest rate of, wait for it, 34.5% APR!!! How ridiculous!!!! He is keeping a sensible head on, and going to deal with the IR first rather than take out a loan!

Will keep you posted how he gets on!

jen_jen_2

try a letter to IR with full budget and offer, they may be more responsive if tehy see it written down

MSE_Martin

I agree with the above. The Inland Revenue can allow monthly payments if a payment in full would cause 'financial hardship'. Have you tried talking it through with them - seeing what they'd accept first. I would also go to the Citizens Advice and if the request comes through them it adds weight.

martin

cjbaps

Hi guys - thanks for the advice. He has been to the CAB and they were not really that useful, unfortunately, just said that he would have to pay it. The IR have had a copy of monthly budget sheets, but they have said that until a monthly payment plan has been agreed, then the legal stuff still carries on - it sounds like they have 2 departments working on the same case - the solicitors, and the tax collectors - but that they don't speak with each other - so it is up to us to WRITE to both departments (I learnt the hard way about having everything on paper).

Doesn't money just get you down sometimes - whoever invented it!?

bestyman

Last year I had the same problem with the Inland revenue. I owed them 10k . At first I got the hard approach from them, threatening bankrupcy etc. I did an income and expenditure calculation and told them I had £300 a month spare.

( they also tried to take into account my girlfriends income, I later found out that they couldn`t take into account all her income. On the inc/exp calculations I told them that she pays £400 a month into the houshold budget and the other £500 a month she spends on what she chooses ( this is the truth , only been with her 2 years so can hardly expect her to hand over over her wage to pay my tax bill from before I met her)

In my case I was in rented housing and had a van that was needed to work so had no assets as such so I told them this and offered £300 a month and my offer was rejected. I asked for a manager and quoted that as long as the debt is repaid over 3 years that is IR policy. This time my offer was accepted.

All current tax bills have to be paid on time plus the £300 a month which is a bit of a strain but the way I look at it is everyday I just have to spend a tenner less or earn a tenner more and thats quite easy. The IR do charge interest and I THINK its a few percent above bank rate but my only other option was bankrupcy so gotta live with it .

I would ask The IR about the rule that says you have 3 years.

Paul

cjbaps

Bestyman you are brilliant - this is the news we have been looking for! At least it shows that there is hope and that the IR can be human after all!!! This is his last tax return, as he has been on PAYE since so they are aware of this also. Very interested to hear about the 3 years you mentioned. We are in a similar situation re: housing - it is rented, and all the furniture is mine. The only asset he has is his car, but needs this to go to work (to earn money to pay the IR). We were considering changing the registered keeper of the car to me, but wondered if they would even take a car in the first place if it was required for work.

Many thanks!!!

jen_jen_2

the Inland revenue cant just take stuff, they will have to take you to court CCJ and the courts will agree a repayment not allow them to take the car.


Its just a matter of getting to the right person, keep repeating the same information and they will eventually accept, it may also be a good idea to start making the payments then the debt will be reducing.

bestyman

Hi,
This was last year so I cannot remember all the exact details ,but I do remember something about the van was needed for work as I am a plumber and I don`t think using a car to get to the office is the same thing. I also was told that if I had a new van it was possible that I should sell it and buy an older one, luckily mines an old P reg anyhow.
Most of the info I got was from nationaldebtline. It takes a long time to get through but they are really helpfull and know what they are talking about.
Hope it all works out.
Paul

bestyman

Me again,
I found this link that mentions up to 3 years to pay and some other info
http://www.taxaid.org.uk/tax_debt.cfm?secnav=5&thirdnav=6
I would still ring nationaldebtline though as I know them to be good and completely free, never used taxaid so cannot comment on them.
If thinking about transfering ownership of the car I would be carefull as it could be seen as fraud if they found out.

After reading your post I rang the IR today and I only owe them 8k now. For the record interest is 6%, I think thats about a tenner a week ( could be wrong) but Im not complaining, just happy that I can budget now and can answer the door without worrying.

The IR did ask me to get a loan from a bank top pay them off but due to poor credit in the past this was not possible. I have been told from friends that they sometimes ask to see refusal letters from banks before they will take instalements.

Another thought, check if you can get any benefits like working family tax credit. My friends self employed and as he is the only one working he claims it , not sure what his income is though.....gotta be worth a phone call.

Paul

Good luck

Paul

cjbaps

It's been a long time since I wrote - so here is an update for those of you who may remember this. After being served with a writ from the local court, and many phone calls trying to negotiate, it turned out the IR had somehow managed to run 2 accounts in my other halfs name, so in fact his debt to the IR was approx £4500 and not in excess of £6000. After many months of waiting.......and waiting......and waiting for the IR to contact him to agree to a monthly payment plan (which we are still waiting for) we managed to raise the money from a family member to be paid back over three years - so he is now IR debt free and working full time on PAYE thank God!!!