Late Tax Return Penalty

Dignified_Blunderer

Hi There!

I'm hoping for some help here

My girlfriend has been hit with a late penalty for self assessment 14//15.
.
She's a refugee and didn't really understand the notices she received and thought them to be irrelevant due to the amount she earned. She worked for a little while for a law form working with other refugees and earned around £900 during the period of 14/15.
She completed her self assessment a few weeks ago and it came back that she didn't owe any tax.

Fast forward a few weeks later and she's received a statement advising that she owes £100 but has a credit of £151 (from tax over-payment under PAYE) and also a fine of £420 for late self assessment!

So she's been hit with a bill of £368 which is a lot for us.

She really doesn't understand whats been happening. I understand as much as she DID do the self assessment late but this charge seems really harsh considering the amount she got from the work and the general over complicated nature of the self assessment system.

Do you guys think there is any ground for an appeal or chance to have some or all of this rescinded?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

TheCyclingProgrammer

Sorry but the rules are clear. The penalties for late submission apply regardless of what tax you owe. Unless she had a reasonable excuse for filing late then the penalty is liable to stand.

Why didn't she submit the tax return on time?

Darksparkle

Why was she registered for self assessment?

chucknorris

Dignified_Blunderer wrote: »

Hi There!

I'm hoping for some help here

My girlfriend has been hit with a late penalty for self assessment 14//15.
.
She's a refugee and didn't really understand the notices she received and thought them to be irrelevant due to the amount she earned. She worked for a little while for a law form working with other refugees and earned around £900 during the period of 14/15.
She completed her self assessment a few weeks ago and it came back that she didn't owe any tax.

Fast forward a few weeks later and she's received a statement advising that she owes £100 but has a credit of £151 (from tax over-payment under PAYE) and also a fine of £420 for late self assessment!

So she's been hit with a bill of £368 which is a lot for us.

She really doesn't understand whats been happening. I understand as much as she DID do the self assessment late but this charge seems really harsh considering the amount she got from the work and the general over complicated nature of the self assessment system.

Do you guys think there is any ground for an appeal or chance to have some or all of this rescinded?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

About 12 years ago I was totally swamped with work (and had been so for the preceding 10 years), I was working full time as a chartered quantity surveyor and also running two businesses. I was very late submitting my tax returns (both personal and for one of the businesses). I was fined for late returns, but when I contacted the inland revenue and explained, they rescinded the fines (but obviously I still had to pay the interest, which is fair enough) on condition that I submitted everything within 3 months. I was able to do that because I had just left my job due to being totally overloaded (something had to change, my life wasn't working, and my salary was actually my third string income, despite taking the most time to do). I never did go back to that line of work, although I did start a new career 10 years later as a university lecturer (part time).

They were very understanding, it is worth contacting them, the worst thing that can happen is that they say no, I suspect that they probably would say no because your defence sounds like it is limited to ignorance (I don't mean that in a bad way), whereas mine was health related, but it won't hurt to talk to them.

agrinnall

As Darksparkle asks, what was the reason she was in SA at all? It seems to make no sense from the information you've given us, did she do some other work that was not in PAYE?

Dignified_Blunderer

Thanks for the replies.

Sorry if I wasnt clear. She did do some freelance work, earning around £900 in tax year 14/15. She was also working part time with tax done by the company she worked for under PAYE.

She did registered for self assessment at the time and I think did a self assessment as she showed me a statement that showed zero balance to be paid.

Because of this statement and the small amount of money earned she didnt think she had to do anything else.

Now she realises that she should have i guess logged in and done more self assessments I guess but she didnt.

She has called the HMRC and they have just confirmed that she had to pay the fine but can appeal in wrting using a form which we will do I guess.

Hopefully they will take pity on us when they get it!

Thanks for all your help!

WEEN_NASTY

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3105064/Thousands-let-fine-late-tax-returns-HMRC-says-taxpayers-reasonable-excuse-not-pay-100-penalty.html


Use one of the excuses accepted by HMRC and appeal on that basis.

TheCyclingProgrammer

WEEN_NASTY wrote: »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3105064/Thousands-let-fine-late-tax-returns-HMRC-says-taxpayers-reasonable-excuse-not-pay-100-penalty.html


Use one of the excuses accepted by HMRC and appeal on that basis.

Only problem is it doesn't sound like OP's partner has a reasonable excuse.

Farcasting

you cant appeal penalties over the phone, its best to put any sort of appeal in writing,but as others have said, your partner doesn't really have a reasonable excuse. You confirmed she received the letter and chose to ignore them as she didn't think it was relevant.

looks like you might just have to pay it. sorry..

Waldir

Hi,

My wife was in exactly the same situation 6 months ago (for tax return not submitted for 2013-14).
We paid the fine and filled in the appeal form explaining that it was a genuine mistake not intended to avoid paying taxes (indeed, she didn't have any tax to pay on her small earnings and this actually made her realise that she was due some overpaid taxes).
HMRC cancelled the fine and paid it back to us.

If your appeal succeeds before the due date of the fine, you may be able to go through the process without having to pay the fine at all. (but get ready to pay it just before the due date in case the appeal takes a long time - I can't remember how long it took for us)

Good luck

Waldir

PS: I wouldn't recommend to pick an excuse from the list above and pretend. It felt great to discover that honesty was well accepted in the UK even if it wasn't in the official grounds for appeal.