Self Assessment query - medical insurance already being collected through tax code?

throwa

Evening all,


I am trying to complete my tax return online for 2014 / 2015 and am running into some issues....


I am a 40% taxpayer, and had medical insurance through my employer. I received a letter from HMRC in Aug 2015 saying that that they were going to collect the tax due on this amount through my tax code for 2015 / 2016 (and duly adjusted the tax code - fair enough). I am now trying to complete the 2014 / 2015 SA and get stuck at the point where it asks me if I had any taxable benefits from my employer. If I answer truthfully and say yes, and give the amount - then the form asks me to pay the tax (again). If I assume it's being collected through my tax code and say no, will HMRC pick up on this as being a blatant lie? What should I do in this case?! I can't seem to enter an offset amount in the 'tax already paid' sections as that requires an allowable loss from one of the other tax categories.


Secondly, I want to claim professional subscriptions as an allowable expense - where should this go on the online return?


Many thanks all.

[Deleted User]

At the end of the process you can view your calculation - if you include and your code did include the benefit all should be well. If you don't you will be overpaid - and will have made an incorrect return!

You state that HMRC were going to include the benefit in your code number for 2015/16 -that would be the benefit for 2015/16 tax year - not 2014/15 which is the year you are dealing with in your self assessment.

For the subs you must tick to claim any expenses in the employment section and claim under profession fees and subscriptions.

throwa

Thanks, I have now found the right box to tick to get my professional subscriptions in :-)


So re the medical tax - are you saying that although I am repaying the tax due on that in my 2015/16 tax code, I still have to pay the lump sum now for it (as it's asking for 2014/15 liability) and then it will come out in the wash in the 2015/16 tax return?


I might have to ring HMRC up in the morning and talk to a human being.....

Spidernick

All your PAYE code is is a way of trying to collect the correct tax. The tax you have paid is what it is, whether it includes any tax on the medical benefit or not. All you need do is report the P60 pay and tax amount and the medical benefit from the P11D - it's as simple as that.

If your tax return shows an underpayment that you don't pay as a lump sum but rather this gets collected in your tax code for a later year (you are too late to do that with any 14/15 liability btw) then the tax effectively gets deferred from the year the liability arises to the year it is collected. For example:

13/14 TR has £200 due. HMRC agrees to collect in next available tax year, which will be 15/16 by the time the liability is established. 13/14 liability payable immediately is therefore nil. 14/15 liability is unaffected but HMRC has adjusted your 15/16 tax code by £500 to collect the £200 tax (£500 at 40%) and when you come to complete your 15/16 tax return you include this 13/14 liability, so your 15/16 liability is £200 higher, but then you have already paid that £200 because of the change in your tax code.

The subs is as purdyoaten2 says, but only claim these if you have paid them yourself, rather than your employer. If paid by your employer I would said to include as a benefit and then deduct an equal amount as the expense (net effect being nil), or you can just leave out entirely if not shown on your P11D (but I prefer the former personally).

throwa

Quick update on this one. I spoke to the very helpful HMRC (and got through straight away, don't know what everyone's complaining about) and explained the situation. They said that they would 'put on file' my charity donations and my professional subscriptions so that each year this was automatically allocated to my tax coding. Consequently I don't need to complete a tax return at all, and the rebate will come back through my tax code! (or at least, it will mitigate the reduction in tax code caused through the medical insurance tax being reclaimed through it....)


If my charity / subs were to change 'significantly' each year then they wanted me just to ring and tell them, but no reason to do the tax return. Interestingly, given we are talking about total of about £500 here, I suggested 'significantly' might be 10% change but the chap seemed to say that any prof subs up to £2.5k weren't very exciting and they wouldn't get too bothered. Obviously you would need to have evidence of all of these, before anyone starts thinking dodgy thoughts...