I haven't paid tax for around 4 years

Volcom94

So, I really need some help. Big time.

I started working at a home Improvements company around august-September time 2013. Although working for the company, I was self employed. The problem is that I never have registered as self employed. Therefore I haven't been paying tax on any money the company paid me (into my bank account, not cash in hand) I've worked for another home Improvements company in that time, doing the exact same thing, then went back to the first one and now I don't work for either. Now four years on, I want to live in Norwich with my girlfriend, and get a regular job where I'm employed and tax is all sorted through them.

My girlfriend tells me that my new employer will need a p45 from my previous employer (I don't have one because I was self employed) or a p60 ( I don't have one of those because I was never registered AS self employed.

So I need to pay four years worth of tax, I have no idea how much I owe. On average, I was earning around £250 a week. I know this is all my fault, but I NEED help. So here's what I need answering.

How much (roughly) do I owe in tax?

How much can I expect to pay an accountant to get me out this mess?

What will HMRC do about this? Can I pay my overdue tax in installments?

How do I get round this with getting employed?

Some help will be really appreciated. REALLY.

Thanks

McKneff

Did you keep any records of income at all.
Any records of expenditure.

You probably dont owe as much as you think in tax. With allowances etc. Google accountants in (where you live)

You realise you are guilty of tax avoidance etc .

Cook_County

Sounds like you were employed but your employer failed to operate PAYE.

Volcom94

Not really, I've always thrown away receipts etc. I was sent pay slips but they were ones that the company had made and sent them to me via post and then later on via email. Not the ones that you carefully tear open when you're employed.

Volcom94

I may have some hard copy pay slips lying around, but later opted for them to be emailed to me. Would this be any help?

00ec25

Volcom94 wrote: »

I started working at a home Improvements company around august-September time 2013. Although working for the company, I was self employed. The problem is that I never have registered as self employed. Therefore I haven't been paying tax on any money the company paid me (into my bank account, not cash in hand) I've worked for another home Improvements company in that time, doing the exact same thing, then went back to the first one and now I don't work for either.

So I need to pay four years worth of tax, I have no idea how much I owe. On average, I was earning around £250 a week. I know this is all my fault, but I NEED help. So here's what I need answering.

How much (roughly) do I owe in tax?

purely to give you a VERY ROUGH idea of what you may owe...

£250 per week = £13,000 gross income per year so it is not earth shattering

you started in sept 2013 so in tax year 13/14, however, as that is not a full tax year let us look at the next year instead, 14/15
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-and-tax-credit-rates-and-thresholds-for-2014-15/tax-and-tax-credit-rates-and-thresholds-for-2014-15

the personal allowance 14/15 was £10,000 but as a self employed person you pay income tax on your PROFIT not on your gross income. However, for simplicity let us take the rather unrealistic position that you have zero costs, and thus all your income was pure profit, so your taxable profit was 3,000 on which you'd pay 20% income tax so £600

however you would also pay national Insurance. For the self employed in 14/15 that was £2.75 per week class 2 and 9% class 4 on profits over £7,956, so again assuming you had zero costs, that would be £143 class 2 plus £454 class 4

the above are worst case outcome for what you could owe in tax. Note carefully however that because you did not pay tax on time you will be charged penalties and interest which could be significant sums of money by the time you tot up 4 years worth.

you need to see an accountant who does personal tax and get help sorting this out as you need someone used to dealing with HMRC when they are being "difficult" over old unpaid tax

00ec25

Volcom94 wrote: »

I may have some hard copy pay slips lying around, but later opted for them to be emailed to me. Would this be any help?

"pay slips" are something that employees get

did you ever invoice the company for the work you did or did they just pay you a sum of money and give you a "payslip" as the record. It sounds a complete mess to be honest because it looks very dubious that you were actually self employed to start with. If you were in fact an employee you will still owe tax but the companies will also be involved as they will be in trouble for failing to operate PAYE.

go see an accountant, you can't sort this out DIY, it has far too many "what ifs" floating around

agrinnall

McKneff wrote: »

You realise you are guilty of tax avoidance etc .

You can't really be guilty of tax avoidance as it's not illegal. You may have meant evasion, which is.

You do need to get your tax situation sorted out but it won't stop you getting a job somewhere else as your girlfriend is wrong (probably best not to tell her that), there is no requirement to hand in a P45, simply complete the starter checklist questions at your new employer (you might have to leave Section 8 unanswered as it's not clear whether A or B is the right response).

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/513621/Starter_checklist_v1.0.pdf

Volcom94

To sum up what I was doing, it was canvassing/cold calling. If you made an appointment for a double glazing sales rep to pitch, you got paid a set amount. So at the end of the each week, I'd count up my appointments and be paid x amount. Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely go and see an accountant.

Volcom94

Thank you very much for taking the time to give your advice. I'll definitely go and see an accountant. What a mess. When it comes to paying off what I owe? Do you think I'll be able to do it in instalments?

HonourlessWeasel

Volcom94 wrote: »

Thank you very much for taking the time to give your advice. I'll definitely go and see an accountant. What a mess. When it comes to paying off what I owe? Do you think I'll be able to do it in instalments?

On your payslips does it show any income tax being paid at all? I'm guessing not, as you said you were technically self-employed.

Secondly - have you had any correspondence from HMRC?

Finally - have you logged in to your personal tax account online to see your tax status? You can do that now to see how much HMRC know about you, you may even be able to see what's missing from your contributions over the past four years.

So, I've been in a crappy situation with HMRC this year, and when they want their money, they want their money. I've not been in a position to pay AT ALL. They knew this, they absolutely knew this, provided them with undeniable proof of this inability to pay what was owed and all they did was sent the debt collectors in despite the entire situation being part of a massive dispute which they failed to make any effort to resolve and refused to provide any answers to my repeated questions by telephone and letter. Dealing with HMRC is like trying to get blood out of a stone - it's been horrific trying to work with them.

It's best to nip it in the bud as early as you can, be upfront with them, but go to them with all of the facts that you possibly can because they will probably put up a brick wall and refuse to help you at every step. Unfortunately, that's been my experience of trying to work with them. One of the things they're refused to do is accept payment in instalments because my issue goes back five years (they didn't bother to tell me about it until this year), however, if you catch them early enough, they might be able to claw it back via your tax code, but that could take years depending upon the amount.