Stopping Self Assessment

unclearengineer

Thanks for reading:

My salary as an employee has dropped below £50k and until now I have self assessed as required by HMRC due to the Child Benefit rules.

How do I stop self assessing? Is it as simple as not filing a return? I don't want to be stung with the wrath of the tax man for not doing a tax return and this is little or no information about how to do this.

Many thanks in advance.

PlutoinCapricorn

If you have received a request to file, ignoring it is not a good idea.

Apparently you should let HMRC know if you think you do not need to file any longer.

PlutoinCapricorn

"What do I do if I no longer need to complete an SA return?

If your circumstances have changed and you think you no longer need to complete a tax return, for example, because you pay all your tax under PAYE, let HMRC know as soon as possible. You can find contact details for HMRC on the GOV.UK website.

If you have already received a tax return for a year, HMRC might agree to cancel it, if you explain your circumstances to them over the telephone. If they agree to withdraw the return, you will no longer need to submit it and any penalties for missing the filing deadline will be set aside.

If HMRC do not agree, however, they may ask you to complete the return and to tell them about the change in your circumstances in the additional information boxes."

http://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/pensioners-tax/do-i-need-to-complete-a-tax-return

Pennywise

unclearengineer wrote: »

Is it as simple as not filing a return?

No, you'll be liable to fines if you don't submit when they've asked you to. You need to phone their SA helpline, tell them your circumstances and ask them to remove you from SA. They'll either agree or not - usually they want an extra year done to confirm not needed. You must keep filling them in and submitting them until you get a letter from them telling you they don't want them anymore.

Marmaduke123

Well, best of luck contacting them by phone! I tried for a week and couldn't get through. I don't now have the tiny amount of untaxed income that I had up to last year. I told them this last year but they still sent me a self assessment form this year. I've decided to complete it rather than keep on trying to get through on the phone

Jim_Cooke

I heard on TV HMRC have such a huge backlog they have taken people off the phonelines to deal with it.
The Government has cut HMRC staff, which would be all very well if they hadn't also made the tax system more complicated creating more work

Marmaduke123

I don't think I would have any confidence I wouldn't get fined, even if they said I didn't have to complete the return they've sent me!

Better safe than sorry .

unclearengineer

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll put one in anyway and hope that they'll realise that I don't need to do one in future.

Although realistically I'd like to be a in a position where I'm earning enough to have to fill one in!

greenbee

I've always found that every time HMRC have sent me the 'you no longer need to fill in a tax return' letter it's been worth my while completing one anyway... they tend to be keener on you not filling it in if they are more likely to give you a rebate than get money from you And the form is certainly a lot easier to fill in now that it used to be - they've added lots of tips that weren't there a few years ago.

Pennywise

Jim_Cooke wrote: »

The Government has cut HMRC staff, which would be all very well if they hadn't also made the tax system more complicated creating more work

HMRC has been cutting staff for over a decade. It's inevitable because the nature of the work has changed. Go back before internet submission, there were tens of thousands low level data entry and admin clerks opening post, entering data into their mainframe, and doing relatively simple calculations. They didn't need to understand much about tax (in some cases nothing).

Now, the vast majority of data is submitted electronically by the business/taxpayer, so all that routine low level work is gone.

The staff needed today need to be higher level, higher ability staff who are capable of understanding highly complicated tax law and have a much broader range of skills and knowledge.

HMRC's problem has been not realising how complex tax is and not recruiting the right calibre of staff, hence the sheer number of mistakes and the sheer number of repeat phone calls and letters to get earlier mistakes corrected. Probably too many "admin clerks" were kept on and moved to different client-facing roles for which they were ill-prepared. So, it's been inevitable that the low level data entry and admin clerks have been made redundant in huge numbers to be replaced by those with a different skill set to meet the demands of the modern job.