State Pension with insufficient years N.I. (self employed) advice please.

Maharishi

Thank you for all the replies - fairly made my head spin.

My wife is 72 and retired in 2010.
We have no children.
She has a grown up son from a previous that lives 230 miles away.
When I got to the end of my tax return, (Jan just gone), it said 0.00 to pay.
My accounts are not self assessed - they are done by Chartered Accountant and have been for 20 plus years. He did say that there might be a bill for class 2 this time, but there was not.

It's a mess for sure - I don't suppose I am the only person in this type of pickle though ...

xylophone

See post 8.

Dazed_and_confused

You may want to discuss your latest tax return with your accountant, the limit for not having to pay class 2 NIC for 2015:16 was £5965 so sounds like there's a chance you could have been due to pay some and if you can sort that out it is normally seen as a very cost effective way of increasing your state pension for someone in your situation - around £150 now has the potential to get you £4+ extra state pension every week

Also, has your accountant applied for marriage allowance when they completed your return? This could be worth up to £212 to your wife for last year (2015:16) if she paid that much tax herself

Maharishi

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

You may want to discuss your latest tax return with your accountant, the limit for not having to pay class 2 NIC for 2015:16 was £5965 so sounds like there's a chance you could have been due to pay some and if you can sort that out it is normally seen as a very cost effective way of increasing your state pension for someone in your situation - around £150 now has the potential to get you £4+ extra state pension every week

Also, has your accountant applied for marriage allowance when they completed your return? This could be worth up to £212 to your wife for last year (2015:16) if she paid that much tax herself

Yes, what you said in paragraph 1 was almost verbatim the conversation that I had with him.

Re paragraph 2, no as my wife retired in 2010 and has been on SP since plus a small private pension that she paid into when she was employed.

Maharishi

xylophone wrote: »

See post 8.

I looked at that, thanks. Link two nearly caused an aneurysm and link 1 is not going to be so straightforward because on my 37th birthday I changed my name by Deed Poll, so the employed years will be under my birth name and a lot of my self employed time will be under my taken name which, alongside my UTR number, appears to have been given a different NI number than the one I was originally allotted.

Just one more hoop in this crazy mess ...

Oh and before you ask - I changed my name because;
1. I absolutely HATED my birth name (allied to a very unpleasant childhood)
2. I preferred to solely use my chosen name, as it was what I was known as through my entertainment work. (Akin to Elton rather not being called Reg Dwight or Cliff, Harry Webb etc)

xylophone

In your situation, the first step might be to telephone the Pension Service to ask for guidance.

https://www.gov.uk/contact-pension-service

atush

I never expected to live very long as my family has a terrible history of heart attacks and strokes. My mother, (whom I take after closely), came from an 8 strong family none of whom made it to 60. They all went in their 40s and 50s. Hence my personal view on my potential longevity.

Beware this assumption.

While it is possible all those deaths were related to genetics, it is also equally likely that they shared poor lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, no exercise, poor diet etc.

Due to your job, you will have been heavily exposed to smoke in t he past even as a non smoker- are your venues smoke free now? Your health improves fairly quickly once second hand smoke is taken out of the equation. There have been studies of pub and other service workers whose blood test results show this since the smoking ban

Torry_Quine

As your wife is of pension age have you looked at pension credit?

Maharishi

atush wrote: »

Beware this assumption.

While it is possible all those deaths were related to genetics, it is also equally likely that they shared poor lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, no exercise, poor diet etc.

Due to your job, you will have been heavily exposed to smoke in t he past even as a non smoker- are your venues smoke free now? Your health improves fairly quickly once second hand smoke is taken out of the equation. There have been studies of pub and other service workers whose blood test results show this since the smoking ban

There are some good points there. Paragraph 1 is 100% on the money - they did all of those (often to excess).

I haven't been exposed to second hand smoke since the act came in (July 2007?), and am currently into a healthier diet plan (since Dec 1 2015) which has seen a reduction in weight of approx 20 pounds. Probably the same to go, I estimate.

If the smoking thing was repealed, I would have to quit tomorrow as I am borderline allergic to tobacco smoke.

Maharishi

Torry_Quine wrote: »

As your wife is of pension age have you looked at pension credit?

No, and I currently do not understand what that means or is ...