Selecting option on self assessment return to have tax collected via tax code

tg99

Did a family member's tax return 15-16 back in December and I'm 99.9999% sure I correctly selected the option to have any tax due (less than £3k) collected via his tax code rather than pay it as a lump sum by 31 Jan. Indeed, I recall checking this twice before submitting the return.

He then got a letter a few weeks ago from HMRC asking him to pay the tax due and when he spoke to HMRC they said the option to have it collected via the tax code had not been selected. I can't see anywhere in the saved copy of the tax return where it shows that box but logging in and going into amend return online and it says 'not set' for that option.

Has anyone experienced the same issue before, ie any chance error at HMRC end as I'm positive the option was selected? (Not that it's worth arguing it out with HMRC since he has now paid the tax due to avoid interest etc.)

dori2o

What date in December did you do the tax return?

tg99

dori2o wrote: »

What date in December did you do the tax return?

Submitted on 20th Dec.

lovinituk

This has come up a few times on this forum lately.

agrinnall

I didn't do a 15-16 return, but the 14-15 one has a section for collection of underpaid tax through the tax code. The important thing is that is is the default method, you only have to indicate anything if you want the underpayment to be collected by another method. It's boxes 2 and 3 on the page immediately after the one that ends with the 'Finishing your tax return' section.

[Deleted User]

agrinnall wrote: »

I didn't do a 15-16 return, but the 14-15 one has a section for collection of underpaid tax through the tax code. The important thing is that is is the default method, you only have to indicate anything if you want the underpayment to be collected by another method. It's boxes 2 and 3 on the page immediately after the one that ends with the 'Finishing your tax return' section.

Correct as usual - 2016/16 instructions as follows:
Looks like ticking a box was the wrong thing to do!

You can pay the amount you owe, excluding Class 2
National Insurance contributions, through your wages
or pension in the year starting 6 April 2017 if you owe
less than £3,000 for the tax year ended 5 April 2016
and send us your paper tax return by 31 October or
30 December 2016 if you file online. If you want us to
try to collect what you owe this way you don’t need to
do anything more. But if you do not want us to do this
then put ‘X’ in the box

tg99

[Deleted User] wrote:

Correct as usual - 2016/16 instructions as follows:
Looks like ticking a box was the wrong thing to do!

You can pay the amount you owe, excluding Class 2
National Insurance contributions, through your wages
or pension in the year starting 6 April 2017 if you owe
less than £3,000 for the tax year ended 5 April 2016
and send us your paper tax return by 31 October or
30 December 2016 if you file online. If you want us to
try to collect what you owe this way you don’t need to
do anything more. But if you do not want us to do this
then put ‘X’ in the box

When I said I selected that option I didn't actually mean physically ticking a box, just that I filed it making sure it was set to have the tax collected via 17-18 tax code......I can't actually remember whether I ticked a box or not. That said, the fact that you have to tick the box to opt out as per your post above now makes me slightly less than 99.9999% confident that I didn't mis-read it and thus make an error accordingly!