A bit of a situation.

Aegean

I've been freelancing for a few years now, but only in the past year have I had a "normal" job and pushed the freelancing to the side.

Last year's tax return was fine, however this year it's an almighty mess and I've ended up owing a fair amount of money to the tax man.

Long story short, it appears that in my "real" job I've failed to notice that I wasn't paying any student loan off in my salary deductions, the tax man has jumped on me to pay the year's worth through my self-assessment (on top of the Class 4 NICs and tax I owe.)

Needless to say I'm up a creek - has anybody had any experience with managing to be able to work out an installments system with HMRC?

Their helpful advice so far has stretched to "ask your bank for a loan", "cut back your spending" and "ask people for money if they owe it to you". Unfortunately I haven't ever been well off enough to lend £1000 to anyone so that rules the latter suggestion out.

prca

In my experience, jump through all of their hoops (as you say let them know you've budgeted, sought other sources of finance etc) then come up with a payment plan. Make sure it's reasonable, so offer say 50% on the due date and then five 10% installments for the following five months.

They aren't particularly forgiving and will charge you interest but you should avoid any penalties in this case.

Aegean

prca wrote: »

They aren't particularly forgiving and will charge you interest but you should avoid any penalties in this case.

Oh believe me, I know that much! :rotfl:

Thanks, I'm making sure I have my budget 100% accurate so they can't trip me up and am calling them tonight. Wish me luck!

Aegean

UPDATE: I called and gave them my full budget breakdown, they said my payments should be accepted but I need to call back in Jan so they can actually process it as I'm *too early*!

I could pass out, nobody's ever said that to me before...