Self Assessment - Where to enter Marriage Allowance?

zagfles

polymaff wrote: »

AIUI there was an issue within HMT/HMRC of how to stop taxpayers exploiting MAT. The solution settled upon was to keep the claimant out of the process.

What on earth is the purpose of the Office of Tax Simplification?

"We give independent advice to the government on simplifying the UK tax system"

N. B. - that's "independent" as in "Part of HM Treasury" :rotfl:

So they're quite happy to let people claim relief for pension contributions, gift aid, work expenses etc on the tax return, but not the MAT!!

It's something that's so easy to cross check as well. Unlike whether an employee really did 5000 miles on company business.

polymaff

polymaff wrote: »

AIUI there was an issue within HMT/HMRC of how to stop taxpayers exploiting MAT. The solution settled upon was to keep the claimant out of the process.

What on earth is the purpose of the Office of Tax Simplification?

"We give independent advice to the government on simplifying the UK tax system"

N. B. - that's "independent" as in "Part of HM Treasury" :rotfl:

zagfles wrote: »

So they're quite happy to let people claim relief for pension contributions, gift aid, work expenses etc on the tax return, but not the MAT!!

It's something that's so easy to cross check as well. Unlike whether an employee really did 5000 miles on company business.

This is one of the issues that dragged out HMRC's own definition of the 2015/16 process to issue 13!

Anyway - you're looking for logic and consistency - no chance

speedyrite

Further to my post no. 25 in this thread two months ago, in particular the closing question "So, when will the credit in respect of the MA transfer be introduced onto my (the Recipients) SA statement, so that I can request repayment of £Y?".

The answer would appear to be TODAY. Have been checking the account regularly and, after a period of 4 or 5 days of account unavailability via the online system, the situation seems to have resolved. The account is now in credit and I have requested a repayment via the usual method.

pafpcg

Having read Speedyrite's post, I checked my HMRC account and I too now have a credit of £212 which has appeared since my last check a week ago.

However, the SA302 Tax Calculation is still the same (showing no transfer of the Marriage Allowance) as it's been for for the last three months since I submitted my online tax return. I wonder if it will ever be updated?

speedyrite

@pafpcg
My issue seems to have been resolved by removing all trace of the £X underpaid entry that arose from completing SA online (where the MA is not involved in the calc) and instead introducing a new £Y overpaid entry (which is the correct amount from the printed SA302 issued post-SA online). Bit of a fudge really but a result all the same. Sounds like your a/c has been done differently but again it produces the outcome you desire!

I suspect these fudges are all necessary due to the inadequacies of rushed design, development and testing of the IT solution for handling MA in post-SA online cases. HMRC systems seem to be getting messier as the tax rules grow ever more complex (and the IT solutions to handle them become over-complicated).

dori2o

zagfles wrote: »

So they're quite happy to let people claim relief for pension contributions, gift aid, work expenses etc on the tax return, but not the MAT!!

It's something that's so easy to cross check as well. Unlike whether an employee really did 5000 miles on company business.

Its not that easy to cross check, thats why you cannot make the intial claim via SA.

Unless you as the taxpayer has told HMRC that you are married and both peoples records hold the details of their spouse, then HMRC don't know you are married.

There is a reason why HMRC insist that you make the claim outside of SA, it's so that the relevant records (NIRS and NPS) can be updated and then SA can check these records for the relevant signals once the tax return is completed.

Being able to claim directly via the SA system is too high of a risk, thats why they don't allow it.

All HMRC's are subject to a risk based assessment prior to being made live. This is why they have limits/criteria for when a tax return is completed, which includes certain expenses/mileage claims having to be done via self assessment depending on their value/type of claims etc.

It's not perfect but no new process ever is.

Now that the online return has been updated and the system finally seems to be allocating the credits, then it should only be better from here on in for the remainder of the self assessment process.


More worryingly I feel is the change from annual to quaterly online reporting which comes into effect as part of the reforms/termination of self assessment which will see the end of the tax return as we currently know it for the majority of people.

This is why the majority who have tried to log into their online account since late mid May have been forced to set up a personal tax account as this is from where they intend to have people submt their quaterly submissions and make their payments.

Given the plans for digitalisation being pushed through, then in my opinion, within 5-10 years paper forms for HMRC will be abolished for all but the very few people who are unable to access/without the ability to be able to submit their queries online. Again it is my opinion that you won't be able to bypass this by writing in, you'l simply be told to submit your claim etc via the tax account.

zagfles

dori2o wrote: »

Its not that easy to cross check, thats why you cannot make the intial claim via SA.

Unless you as the taxpayer has told HMRC that you are married and both peoples records hold the details of their spouse, then HMRC don't know you are married.

There is a reason why HMRC insist that you make the claim outside of SA, it's so that the relevant records (NIRS and NPS) can be updated and then SA can check these records for the relevant signals once the tax return is completed.

Being able to claim directly via the SA system is too high of a risk, thats why they don't allow it.

They don't have to allow the initial claim on SA. But they should allow you to state "I have claimed and am in reciept of MAT" on the SA tax return. This would be trivially easy to cross check, from the PAYE system! And then the tax calculation would be correct in the first place.

The PAYE system allowed people to transfer tax allowances between spouses last tax year. If neither were in SA, nothing further would need to be done and the transfer would have been made and the correct tax paid by both. Why is that not considered a "risk", yet people simply stating "I have claimed MAT" on their SA a "risk"?

In both cases, subsequent checks may reveal they weren't actually married and they could be dealt with appropriately. But that applies to people both in and outside SA.

All HMRC's are subject to a risk based assessment prior to being made live. This is why they have limits/criteria for when a tax return is completed, which includes certain expenses/mileage claims having to be done via self assessment depending on their value/type of claims etc.

Maybe they shouldn't call it "self assessment" if they don't trust people to "self assess". In past years I've claimed far more than the value of the MAT through my tax return and never had any of it questioned.