Personal tax account

MichelleUK

I have used the account to update company car details, and a new tax code for 2016/17 was generated the next day.... very impressed! What is not so impressive, is that they have ignored it for the provisional 2017/18 tax code and upon querying it, HMRC wrote back, by snail mail, saying that they need a P46(car) from the employer (another long story...) I am not sure why they accepted it for one year but not the next, and why mail and not use the message system?

Also, it would be very handy to be able to update the pension contribution relief and gift aid payments, rather than having to contact HMRC by phone or letter (something I try to avoid at all costs.....much prefer being able to enter my own information rather than hoping that HMRC can interpret what needs to be done from a letter or telephone conversation).

I like the tax account, but as an accountant, I probably find it easier to use than someone with less tax knowledge.

dori2o

MichelleUK wrote: »

I have used the account to update company car details, and a new tax code for 2016/17 was generated the next day.... very impressed! What is not so impressive, is that they have ignored it for the provisional 2017/18 tax code and upon querying it, HMRC wrote back, by snail mail, saying that they need a P46(car) from the employer (another long story...) I am not sure why they accepted it for one year but not the next, and why mail and not use the message system?

Also, it would be very handy to be able to update the pension contribution relief and gift aid payments, rather than having to contact HMRC by phone or letter (something I try to avoid at all costs.....much prefer being able to enter my own information rather than hoping that HMRC can interpret what needs to be done from a letter or telephone conversation).

I like the tax account, but as an accountant, I probably find it easier to use than someone with less tax knowledge.

The reason for the issue with company cars is that it only updated the PAYE service, it doesn't update the system HMRC use to store P11D information, therefore when a new tax code is issued for the next tax year it is based on what is held on the system where P11D info is held.

I doubt that this will now be updated as from April 2018 all company cars will be dealt with via payroll rather than deductions to tax codes.

Currently the messaging service is not planned to be used as a replacement for letters as there are still some doubts surrounding the security of customer correspondence.

More services are being added to the tax account all the time. It's a work in progress. Considering it was only released almost 12 months ago the development rate has been very high. There have been and are issues which are being resolved all the time, and once the build is stable there will be new services added.

MichelleUK

dori2o wrote: »

The reason for the issue with company cars is that it only updated the PAYE service, it doesn't update the system HMRC use to store P11D information, therefore when a new tax code is issued for the next tax year it is based on what is held on the system where P11D info is held.

I doubt that this will now be updated as from April 2018 all company cars will be dealt with via payroll rather than deductions to tax codes.

Currently the messaging service is not planned to be used as a replacement for letters as there are still some doubts surrounding the security of customer correspondence.

More services are being added to the tax account all the time. It's a work in progress. Considering it was only released almost 12 months ago the development rate has been very high. There have been and are issues which are being resolved all the time, and once the build is stable there will be new services added.

Thanks dori20, can I ask a bit more of your insider knowledge?

I have today, being a new tax year, been able to access some more detail behind the car benefit calculation. It shows as having two cars held at the same time but oddly, the calculations for car and fuel benefit do not make any sense at all if compared to the HMRC online benefit calculator. I have amended the car that was given back in 2016 and this has now been removed from the tax code. Unfortunately the remaining car is still showing the incorrect benefit charges even though all of the details about co2 and costs etc. are correct.

Is there a known fault in the personal account concerning the car benefit calculations or will there be some behind the scenes processing that will correct the code? Thanks for any help!

Johnny_C_2

Just a note for anyone using the HMRC App.

When you sign up for the App, you have to scan a QR code.

When you change phones or tablets, even if you migrated all your data, you need to log into your tax account, and it requests a new QR code. Once you've set your app up, the option for a new QR code disappears and you can't display your old one, there's just no option.

Unfortunately HMRC didn't realise that people might at some stage change devices. So you can't use the internet to set the HMRC app up on your new device, as you can no longer see the QR code nor set a new one up.

The only way to get around this is to contact HMRC.

If you do it by phone, expect to be hanging on the line for a long time to get answered.

There is however a new function on the HMRC website, Live Chat. I think it's called 'Ask Claire' or something. When you go into that there's a number of options, none of them are about the app so click 'None of the above' or whatever the catchall option is. You then connect to an agent using a Live Chat box. It took me about 15 secs to get answered, and about 2 minutes to get a new QR code. I was doing it for a corporate account and what they do is delete the device access stored against your corporation tax service so you need your company details and the UTR. Brilliant.

I've been doing company accounts for years. The old website was terrible. I am glad to see that HMRC are getting up to date and really improving services for tax payers. They've kept the fantastic VAT return - 30 seconds to complete a VAT return! - and the newish account filing and corporation tax for microentities is a godsend compared to the horrific online executable PDF that you used to have to do.

I used to dread anything not working on the HMRC website, the phone queues were terrible. That Live Chat is ace. I don't know for sure but my query was dealt with so quickly and efficiently that I suspect they're using AI. if they are, magnificent!

Pennywise

Johnny_C wrote: »

They've kept the fantastic VAT return - 30 seconds to complete a VAT return!

Unfortunately, they're scrapping the VAT online functionality next April, from which time you'll have to use accounting software with built in functionality to connect to HMRC and submit the figures directly from your accounting software.

chrismac1

MTD really sums HMRC up. The VAT return is the one element of the current setup which works properly and reliably, without the muck-ups, long waits on the phone and weeks by post to correct simple stuff which dogs the rest of the UK tax system due to incompetence of HMRC management going back the best part of 20 years now.


So naturally, given that VAT ain't broke, these same incompetent numpties have decided to fix it. You can't make this stuff up!