Self Assessment/Student Loan Nightmare

South_coast_flyer

Looking for some help with what should be very basic but of course doesn't appear to be.

Two things to bear in mind here:

1. I'm fully employed but do a bit of freelance so need to complete an SA
2. I have an income contingent student loan that has just been paid off in May 2015. I stopped PAYE deductions to this in Oct 2014 and switched to Student Loan Company direct debit.

So I filled in self assessment, completing all income and tax fields for both employed and self-employed - ticked the box to say I have a student loan and it will be paid off within two years (as I also specified in last years SA).

At the end of the process it tells me I owe a huge amount of student loan repayments (because it's not aware I went onto the direct debit scheme instead of PAYE) - so I actually owe nothing at all but it wants me to pay this amount which I just can't find a way out of!!! I've called HMRC and SLC and no one is any help at all - they just say submit it and hopefully someone won't process it - great!!

How on earth do I tell my self assessment that it's wrong and I have no loan to repay?? Or do I need to submit it with this amount to pay and hope someone realises and eventually gives me a refund? I don't really want to part with over £1k unnecessarily.

Any help would be much appreciated.

zygurat789

South_coast_flyer wrote: »

Looking for some help with what should be very basic but of course doesn't appear to be.

Two things to bear in mind here:

1. I'm fully employed but do a bit of freelance so need to complete an SA
2. I have an income contingent student loan that has just been paid off in May 2015. I stopped PAYE deductions to this in Oct 2014 and switched to Student Loan Company direct debit.

So I filled in self assessment, completing all income and tax fields for both employed and self-employed - ticked the box to say I have a student loan and it will be paid off within two years (as I also specified in last years SA).

At the end of the process it tells me I owe a huge amount of student loan repayments (because it's not aware I went onto the direct debit scheme instead of PAYE) - so I actually owe nothing at all but it wants me to pay this amount which I just can't find a way out of!!! I've called HMRC and SLC and no one is any help at all - they just say submit it and hopefully someone won't process it - great!!

How on earth do I tell my self assessment that it's wrong and I have no loan to repay?? Or do I need to submit it with this amount to pay and hope someone realises and eventually gives me a refund? I don't really want to part with over £1k unnecessarily.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Nightmare? Come on, man up.
From the tax return, Tell us about you, last question.

Contact HMRC if any of the following apply:

you receive notification after you have sent your return that your ICR student loan has been fully repaid before 1 January 2016

You can also reduce payments by the amount of the student loan repayments but don't forget to give a reason.

South_coast_flyer

Thanks for such a helpul reply. You obviously missed the bit about having contacted them!!!!!

sheramber

You can pay off your loan more quickly by making extra repayments voluntarily. You can do this anytime by using the Make a Payment service

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678530&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
If you do choose to make voluntary repayments, you will pay your loan off more quickly. However, any voluntary repayments will not affect the amount collected through the tax system. If you are a self assessed customer, you will still have to pay the amount due based on your income for the year. You cannot get a refund of any amounts you repay voluntarily, unless you have finished paying off your loan and paid too much.

Pennywise

An option is not to tick the "student loans due box", put nothing in the "student loan deductions" box, make an entry in the "additional notes" box to explain why, and then write to the SA office to confirm what you've done and ask for the student loan deductions to be suspended pending confirmation from the Student Loan company - if you have written confirmation that it's been paid, then send a copy of the letter too.

The process is called "informal standover" - http://www.taxation.co.uk/taxation/Articles/2011/09/07/28931/student-loans

Worst thing in the world is pay the amount per the SA return because it will be an even bigger nightmare to get it refunded!