tax credit and dividend

zagfles

UKSBD wrote: »

Just doing my tax credit form.


I received a dividend of £13,000
My dividend voucher says;


Payment £13,000
Tax credit= £1,444.44
Gross dividend - £14,444.44


Is it the £14,444 that goes in the additional income?

Minus £300, if that's you're only "other income". If you have any other "other income" eg bank interest you'll have to add that on.

MABLE

zagfles wrote: »

I'd wager MSE gives the right answer more often than the HMRC tax credits office!

May be so but if HMRC give you the incorrect information you may have some comeback.

NeilCr

zagfles wrote: »

I'd wager MSE gives the right answer more often than the HMRC tax credits office!

Oh don't get me wrong there are some really good posters on here - Darksparkle is an absolute star on tax credits. I'd wager she gives the right answer all the time! 😀😀

But - equally there are wrong answers and it bothers me that people will take them as gospel - one of the perils of t'internet of course. And, HMRC get it right a lot of the time. In general people only post if they have a problem - not to give praise.

I guess it's me. If I have a problem or query I ring/visit the appropriate office/authority first and then have a look at the answer if it doesn't appear or feel right

zagfles

NeilCr wrote: »

Oh don't get me wrong there are some really good posters on here - Darksparkle is an absolute star on tax credits. I'd wager she gives the right answer all the time! 😀😀

But - equally there are wrong answers and it bothers me that people will take them as gospel - one of the perils of t'internet of course. And, HMRC get it right a lot of the time. In general people only post if they have a problem - not to give praise.

I guess it's me. If I have a problem or query I ring/visit the appropriate office/authority first and then have a look at the answer if it doesn't appear or feel right

We could just replace the whole forum with pointer to the HMRC/DWP contact lines I suppose But seriously, there've some ridiculous howlers from HMRC staff reported here, people being told to declare capital as income, people being told paying AVCs won't reduce their income, there was even an example of HMRC sending an official letter to millions of people with the wrong information on it and that was eventually reported in the national press, spotted here first!

The good thing about a forum is you're not asking one person, you're asking loads, and if someone posts rubbish you'll generally get someone else along who'll point it out. Phone the HMRC helpine and you're down to the opinion of one person. Which would be fine if they were all trained and understood what they're talking about.

zagfles

MABLE wrote: »

May be so but if HMRC give you the incorrect information you may have some comeback.

Possibly, as long as you find out it was incorrect. Otherwise you may just lose money you'd otherwise be entitled to.

See this thread for an example of a poster being told time and time again incorrect info by HMRC: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4608965

NeilCr

zagfles wrote: »

We could just replace the whole forum with pointer to the HMRC/DWP contact lines I suppose But seriously, there've some ridiculous howlers from HMRC staff reported here, people being told to declare capital as income, people being told paying AVCs won't reduce their income, there was even an example of HMRC sending an official letter to millions of people with the wrong information on it and that was eventually reported in the national press, spotted here first!

The good thing about a forum is you're not asking one person, you're asking loads, and if someone posts rubbish you'll generally get someone else along who'll point it out. Phone the HMRC helpine and you're down to the opinion of one person. Which would be fine if they were all trained and understood what they're talking about.

Well as I said earlier there are lots of issues which can be taken straight to the forum.....🍷🍷

And, again, people tend to post on forums like this when they have had a bad experience - not to praise

I do quite a lot of advice work and we all prefer face to face and phone work to email because you can have a much quicker interaction and get the full story - some advice here can easily be based on an incorrect understanding of the actual situation.

Anyways I'll leave it at that. I've gone far too off topic which is very unfair to the OP to whom I apologise

zagfles

Celifein wrote: »

I had a gentleman on the tax credits helpline tell me that I should give him my estimated income for the following year before pension was deducted. I told him I didn't think that was right, that it should be my taxable income, which would be after pension was deducted, but before NI and tax were deducted. He was completely sure it was my income before any deductions and supposedly confirmed this was correct with his supervisor. He said I could only give the figure without pension if I was paying my pension myself instead of through my employer.

A few weeks later, I called to confirm my income for the previous year and asked if they wanted my taxable income from my P60, or if they wanted my pay before pension was deducted. Definitely taxable income.

My best guess is the first guy thought that taxable income was the same as take-home pay, so he assumed I was trying to give him my pay after all deductions, instead of just my pension, despite me telling him several times what the figure was.

Yup. This happens time and time again - see the thread I linked above.

The fact is all pension contributions are deductible, whether to an workplace or a private scheme. The problem is that for most employer's schemes, pension contributions are deducted from pay before tax, so as you say the P60 shows income after pension contributions are deducted.

They don't want people to deduct pension contributions twice, so the helpline seem to have simple instructions/training that employer pension contributions can't be deducted - because they're already deducted from the P60 (usually) and that's what most people use to declare their income.

This causes hassle for not only people like you and the OP in the thread I linked above, because TCO staff don't understand this, but far greater hassle for people unlucky enough to have an employer's pension scheme where contributions come out of net pay. In those cases pension contributions can be deducted from P60 income. But 9 times out of 10 TCO will tell you can't deduct them!

zagfles

NeilCr wrote: »

Well as I said earlier there are lots of issues which can be taken straight to the forum.....🍷🍷

And, again, people tend to post on forums like this when they have had a bad experience - not to praise

People don't tend to post here to complain or praise HMRC. They tend to post with a question. And quite often they get an answer which HMRC sometimes then contradict when they phone them. That's often when we discover HMRC staff don't know what they're talking about.

I do quite a lot of advice work and we all prefer face to face and phone work to email because you can have a much quicker interaction and get the full story - some advice here can easily be based on an incorrect understanding of the actual situation.

I would far rather rely on written advice than verbal. Verbal means an instant/near instance answer needs to be given, and by the person asked. Written means answers can be checked, manuals can be consulted, there is no time pressure, someone being asked who doesn't know the answer doesn't have to guess as happens so so often when people are asked for advice verbally.

When HMRC are telling people rubbish on the phone, I usually advise them to write to them, A written answer is so much more reliable. Well, usually!

zagfles

Celifein wrote: »

I saw the link you posted after I replied (see edit). The guy must have been assuming I was deducting my pension from my taxable pay. The thing is, this was the start of the new tax year and I was giving him an estimate, not reading a figure off a P60. I was explaining that I'd had a payrise up to x amount and that my taxable pay would be x-y% and gave him the approximate figure.

I've literally never come across a company that tells you you're getting a pay rise, then tells you your new taxable income, instead of your new income before anything is deducted, so I'm still at a loss as to how he came to the conclusion that I was deducting my pension twice.

Yup - like I said in the other thread it's probably best to just give them your estimate of your P60 income, ie after pension conts are deducted, without explaining to them that you've deducted them.