Marriage Allowance

Dazed_and_confused

I think that would be better yes.

polymaff

Tinyshoes wrote: »

OH filed his tax return online on 22/12/19 and received the SA302 Self Assessment Tax Calculation through the post around New Year it is dated 24/12/19 so obviously postal timings will have been different.

The refund cheque is dated 30/12/19 and we received that sometime last week unsure exactly when as we were away and came back to a pile of post, this was a very welcome letter to find.

I will add OH has not logged back onto his account to see what it says online as he has an aversion to the self assessment system as it is and I know he will just assume this paperwork is final say and correct.

What threw us this year is the fact that when he has done his self assessment last couple of years it has included him receiving the Marriage allowance in the calculation before SA302 was received in the post. Last year 2017/18 it showed a £1 underpayment which he paid on the day he submitted his SA online. We both assumed it was just a rounding of figures that had caused the discrepancy and all the figures matched when the SA302 came through the post last year.

I don't understand why this year was different except for timing, nothing else has changed. As I said previously he usually doesn't submit the return this early, it's usually not until mid/3rd week of January.

The SA302 for an SA100 filed online is available immediately after the SA100 is submitted - so no need to wait for the post; viewing, printing or downloading the SA302 are all options available at the end of the online filing process. Pretty Luddite not to do so?

It appears that HMRC may be shifting the MAT data to where it should be - in the SA300 statement of account - so this could be viewed as a step forward by HMRC.

Now all they need to do is to speed up the SA300 process...:(

Zanderman

Just to add our experience of Marriage Allowance this week - it's been in place for a couple of years now and is, as I understand it, in place until instructed otherwise.

We both submitted online - me first, but the final calc on mine made no reference to the MAT - just the basic personal allowance. Last two years it's been there automatically.

Filled in Mrs Z-man's form - which included the question do you want to do MAT for your partner Y or N.? Answered Y as that is what we want, and the system, from doing mine, seemed to have forgotten this (at this point I'd not read the recent posts here so was unaware there was a glitch).

On answering Y it wanted marriage date and names - which were entered. It then rejected these as 'not matching existing info' - which is odd as it's the same marriage of the same two people. We'd notice if it wasn't!

Tried again, two more times, same result each time. Wouldn't let us do a fourth one - and as a result she was forced to say N to the question - as she couldn't proceed otherwise.

So... then read recent posts here and thought maybe it will sort itself out... Have been away a few days and just got back - so logged in, 4 days after submitting.

My online SA302 still says the same thing - only my own personal allowance, no mention of Marriage Allowance. It claims I owe them more than I think I should as a result.

However, on looking at my online "Tax Year Overview' the figure given is the figure I would get if the MAT was in place.

So they are now giving me two different figures, depending on which statement I look at.

Which is reassuring - a bit. I'll pay the lower amount, as that's what is correct.

But I'm bothered that Mrs Z-man's return now says she doesn't want to do Marriage Allowance, as she was forced to say that after it refuse to accept the correct info and if she hadn't said it she wouldn't have been able to complete the return.

HMRC don't get any better do they?

Dazed_and_confused

What impact has receiving the full Personal Allowance had on your wife's tax liability?

Zanderman

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

What impact has receiving the full Personal Allowance had on your wife's tax liability?

None, as she earns well below the threshold

Dazed_and_confused

Well then I'd just make sure I paid the correct amount on time and wait for it all to come out in the wash.

polymaff

Hasn't one of Zanderman's points been covered several times recently? That HMRC are now, correctly, reporting the benefit to the beneficiary in his SA300.

Gosh, I don't often have "HMRC" and "correctly" in the same sentence.

Nurse, Nurse, come quickly...:rotfl:

Zanderman

polymaff wrote: »

Hasn't one of Zanderman's points been covered several times recently? That HMRC are now, correctly, reporting the benefit to the beneficiary in his SA300.

Gosh, I don't often have "HMRC" and "correctly" in the same sentence.

Nurse, Nurse, come quickly...:rotfl:

Quite possibly - I wasn't posting to ask for advice, merely reporting on my experience. If it tallies with others then I hope it helps confirm things.

My only additional point was (unless I missed someone else posting it) that Mrs Z-man was not only unable to reset the MAT she was actually prevented from even requesting it as the system claimed our marriage details were incorrect and forced her to say she didn't want it as she couldn't proceed saying Yes

Which implies two things - one that their system really is broken (as the details WERE correct) and the second that there is, now, a possibility that the MAT for us might be cancelled because she could not complete her return without saying No to it.

ETA - just to add, as there is still ambiguity in what HMRC are telling me, that I certainly don't consider that this is being done 'correctly' now. Whilst there is ambiguity it is still incorrect - unforgivably so as they seem to have trashed their own system (it used to work fine) and are now sowing confusion.

polymaff

Zanderman wrote: »

Quite possibly - I wasn't posting to ask for advice, merely reporting on my experience. If it tallies with others then I hope it helps confirm things.

My only additional point was (unless I missed someone else posting it) that Mrs Z-man was not only unable to reset the MAT she was actually prevented from even requesting it as the system claimed our marriage details were incorrect and forced her to say she didn't want it as she couldn't proceed saying Yes

Which implies two things - one that their system really is broken (as the details WERE correct) and the second that there is, now, a possibility that the MAT for us might be cancelled because she could not complete her return without saying No to it.

ETA - just to add, as there is still ambiguity in what HMRC are telling me, that I certainly don't consider that this is being done 'correctly' now. Whilst there is ambiguity it is still incorrect - unforgivably so as they seem to have trashed their own system (it used to work fine) and are now sowing confusion.

Gosh! SNAFU!


Yes, I was just commenting on that particular aspect - the rest is, well, SNAFU...:)

Heedtheadvice

It appears that HMRC may be shifting the MAT data to where it should be - in the SA300 statement of account - so this could be viewed as a step forward by HMRC.

Now all they need to do is to speed up the SA300 process...:(

I take it as correct what you write about where the MAT data should be but cannot but disagree with your claim that all that is required is to speed up the SA300 process!


It (MAT) was originally 'advertised' as a partial transfer of allowance, showed in coding notice, included in tax return, shown in online SA302 etc. and any paper confirmations.


Now after the process has been 'corrected' to correspond with law:

It still shows up in coding notices, not in tax return, not in Sa302 online (thus giving an erroneous tax owed figure) does not show up in online tax calc page or the account position.



After HMRC 'trigger' updated calcs only the account position changes to show tax position plus eventually we get a paper version of the SA302 to show the calculation. Correct we hope at this stage.


But the erroneous online data remains. Two SA302s (online and paper copies) differ. We have moved from a situation were the process worked as understood by us simpletons, we could see on our return submission if MAT was applied, correct (hopefully!) tax owed was shown at all stages and there was agreement of figures......and less confusion. Most people will not know which figure to believe or which statement presented by HMRC as to our tax liability. :rotfl:
Now you might argue we should know which figure to believe (account) but the info provided on the other 'documents' claim veracity in their wording!




So much more extra work has been generated and not a little confusion unexplained by HMRC (till it is queried) so a lot more system improvement need to be made.:eek: