Child Beneift Clawback - Threatening letter from HMRC

GingerBob_3

Just had a threatening letter from the HMRC buffoons (I guess loads of people have received the same letter today) telling me "You need to act now!" and that you have to pay "the charge" if income is over 50k and child benefit is paid. This is the simplistic threat on the letter, backed up with the usual high-handed drivel we get from these morons. So I got to looking at my situation and perhaps someone could confirm my thinking on this:

I refer to my P60 for tax year ended 5/4/2013.

I add Pay to Tax Deducted to get my salary before tax.

I add items from my P11D.

I subtract total pension contributions (including AVCs taken off by my employer).

The result is income less than 50k therefore no liability.

Is this correct or am I missing something? For example, am I right in thinking I just use P60 figures and don't need to trawl through individual salary advice notes calculating NI and the rest?

Thanks.

DomRavioli

Have you rang them for an explanation? That would be the first port of call as they may have calculated differently from yourself - only HMRC can tell you how THEY calculated it.

GingerBob_3

I don't think they've calculated anything. It looks like a standard letter, probably sent to people who've got a top line over 50k, who haven't contacted them and who are in receipt of child benefit. The tone of the letter is quite outrageous.

DomRavioli

Well as I understand it, HMRC are advised by your employer (or yourself if S/E) as to your income and tax for taxation purposes.

Therefore there will have been a calculation, even if brief.

Why not call them and ask? If you found the letter "outrageous", then you would need to complain to them, if there were grounds to do so - HMRC would be able to advise further on it.

You won't get far working it out yourself without speaking to them, as they have made either an assumption or a decision that you are possibly ineligible due to your salary - only HMRC can tell you how they have come to this, and what figures have been used.

tomtontom

Is it possible to scan this letter for us please, deleting your personal details? I am intrigued as to what is stated to provoke such a strong reaction.

GingerBob_3

I scanned the letter as a .jpg file - so how do you attach it here? All I can find is the Insert Image icon which requires a URL.

GingerBob_3

OK, so maybe I put the drive spec in as the URL - let me try:


No - doesn't work. Can some one advise?

They didn't even have the decency to start with Dear Mr ...

More details: I went on their calculator and confirmed I owe nothing. I pay over 10k per year pension, so it takes me JUST below the 50k threshold. However, as requested earlier, can someone confirm that salary before tax relates to the two figures given on the P60 in the red box, noted as "use this on a tax return".

Thanks.

FBaby

Our experience has been that those on the lines are not trained to fully understand how it should be calculated. My husband has gone through 3 different people, all have admitted not being sure about things. One didn't even know that pension contributions could be taken out.

It took a lot of phone calls and talking to different people before it got sorted. They were all pleasant and helpful and in the end, it was agreed that my husband's calculation was the correct one. Give them a call.

zagfles

GingerBob wrote: »

Just had a threatening letter from the HMRC buffoons (I guess loads of people have received the same letter today) telling me "You need to act now!" and that you have to pay "the charge" if income is over 50k and child benefit is paid. This is the simplistic threat on the letter, backed up with the usual high-handed drivel we get from these morons. So I got to looking at my situation and perhaps someone could confirm my thinking on this:

I refer to my P60 for tax year ended 5/4/2013.

I add Pay to Tax Deducted to get my salary before tax.

You don't add tax deducted, the amount quoted on the P60 is the amount before tax & NI is deducted, but (usually) after work pension contributions are deducted.

I add items from my P11D.

I subtract total pension contributions (including AVCs taken off by my employer).

You don't usually deduct employer pension contributions because they are nearly always already deducted in the P60 figure. (There are some exceptions where a few employers use a stakeholder type pension and they deduct pension conts from net pay, but these are rare. You can check by seeing how your gross taxable pay to date changes from one pay slip to the next).

If you made any personal pension contribution they can be deducted but you'll need to do a tax return if your income is over £50k before deducting personal pension conts, and you should do anyway if you're a higher rate taxpayer to get the extra relief. (same applies if work conts come from net pay).

StormyWeather_2

GingerBob wrote: »

I scanned the letter as a .jpg file - so how do you attach it here? All I can find is the Insert Image icon which requires a URL.

I think you'd need to upload the image to an image host then use the url from there.

GingerBob_3

Here's the image from an image host.

Still doesn't work, but then, for some reason at the bottom of the page I notice the statement:

"You may not post attachments", so Looks like I'll have to give up.

However here's the dirext URL link: http://postimg.org/image/7j6tglxh3/