Self-Assessment - Paying the same tax back twice?

jsj25

Hi guys,

I’m in the process for filling in a self-assessment for the first time. I’m employed full-time but undertook some sporadic self-employed work in the 2017-18 tax year.

Looking at my calculation so far, it seems like there’s an error in one of the calculations HMRC is spitting out. In the last tax year, I switched employers. The total that I earned between the two was £20,902.39, and the tax I paid was £1,869, which seems about right.

When I changed employers in November 2017, I ended up inadvertently receiving two tax allowances for that month, which resulted in me owing HMRC £192. They wrote to me and changed my tax code to 876L X (from 1150L X) to reclaim this money by 5 April, and as far as I’m aware this has now been fully paid off.

However, on my self-assessment, it’s included this £192 as part of the tax that I owe. Am I correct in assuming that this shouldn’t be the case, given that that money was repaid to them through my tax code with my employer?

FYI, for this question:

Underpaid tax for earlier years included in your tax code for 6 April 2017 to 5 April 2018 (from your PAYE Notice of Coding).

... it had pre-populated the answer with £192, which I initially assumed was correct. However, if it's talking specifically about earlier years, should this number theoretically be £0?

NordicNoir

jsj25 wrote: »

Hi guys,

I’m in the process for filling in a self-assessment for the first time. I’m employed full-time but undertook some sporadic self-employed work in the 2017-18 tax year.

Looking at my calculation so far, it seems like there’s an error in one of the calculations HMRC is spitting out. In the last tax year, I switched employers. The total that I earned between the two was £20,902.39, and the tax I paid was £1,869, which seems about right.

When I changed employers in November 2017, I ended up inadvertently receiving two tax allowances for that month, which resulted in me owing HMRC £192. They wrote to me and changed my tax code to 876L X (from 1150L X) to reclaim this money by 5 April, and as far as I’m aware this has now been fully paid off.

However, on my self-assessment, it’s included this £192 as part of the tax that I owe. Am I correct in assuming that this shouldn’t be the case, given that that money was repaid to them through my tax code with my employer?

FYI, for this question:

Underpaid tax for earlier years included in your tax code for 6 April 2017 to 5 April 2018 (from your PAYE Notice of Coding).

... it had pre-populated the answer with £192, which I initially assumed was correct. However, if it's talking specifically about earlier years, should this number theoretically be £0?

Yes, I noticed the same thing on the HMRC online form too. I changed it to £0.

I think that the problem is that 'in-year' underpayments were new this tax year and HMRC have not reflected this in the tax return program. I would imagine that quite a few people will just accept what HMRC have included and end up overpaying.

dori2o

This is a known issue.

You need to go back into your online account, select the self assessment option, then select Amend this tax return.

Go to the relevant section, change the figure to 0.00 and in the explanation box type In Year underpayment.

Work is underway to put a fix in place for this issue.

NordicNoir

dori2o wrote: »

This is a known issue.

Do HMRC list their 'known issues' anywhere online where non HMRC people can see them?

dori2o

MichelleUK wrote: »

Do HMRC list their 'known issues' anywhere online where non HMRC people can see them?

Not as far as Im aware.

jsj25

MichelleUK wrote: »

Yes, I noticed the same thing on the HMRC online form too. I changed it to £0.

I think that the problem is that 'in-year' underpayments were new this tax year and HMRC have not reflected this in the tax return program. I would imagine that quite a few people will just accept what HMRC have included and end up overpaying.

dori2o wrote: »

This is a known issue.

You need to go back into your online account, select the self assessment option, then select Amend this tax return.

Go to the relevant section, change the figure to 0.00 and in the explanation box type In Year underpayment.

Work is underway to put a fix in place for this issue.

I actually ended up calling HMRC today about something else, but I mentioned this to them and they confirmed what you've both said, ie. it's wrong and should be changed to £0.

I wasn't aware that this was a new thing, but it would certainly explain why their systems haven't caught up. I've spoken to about four different HMRC advisers about the new trading allowance brought in this year and none of them had any information about it - one hadn't even heard of it. I'm guessing it'll take their systems a while to reflect these new measures.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!