Pension payout, wrong tax. Need advice.

Dannystaples

Sorry if this is in the wrong section but my dad today got contacted by Inland Revenue saying he owes them £22,000 in unpaid tax.

This was from a couple of pension payments he took out of his pot over the last five years or so for various reasons. This is BEFORE retirement.

Standard Life told him when he asked for the money that he would be taxed and they were sorting it out for him. Clearly someone didn't do their job.

Anyway he has contacted Standard Life who his pension is with and Inland Revenue and neither of them wants to deal with it. One of them messed up and both expect my dad to sort it out on his own.

Naturally he is cacking it now thinking the house is going to be repossessed or something.

Is there anyone we can contact for advice on this?

dunstonh

How did he access the pension? ( i suspect capped drawdown unless he used a liberation scam - HMRC have been catching a lot of pension liberation scams recently)
Was he aged under 55 when he drew the money?

If capped drawdown and taken on a regular basis, std life would have had a payslip style notification showing gross amount, tax deducted and net amount. They would also issue a P60 each year. So, your dad would have been able to see if tax was paid or not if that method was used.

With a 22k tax bill, its unlikely to be a trivial payment. So, we can disregard that.

With pension liberation, no tax is paid at the start and HMRC usually turn up asking for it about 3-6 years later if you dont declare it.

If capped drawdown, did you take lump sums above the GAD limit? This was possible but only in certain criteria. If he didnt meet that criteria, then a further tax payment was due for unauthorised payment.

Basically, we need info on method used to get the money.