Hmrc want me to withdraw my set aside order ?

lisabee77

Cutting a very very long story short, HMRC claim I owe them 28k in VAT and penalties. The absolute incompetence of these people astounds me. They sent demands for records to the wrong address 2 years ago, and when we didn’t comply raise an assessment against me and charged 70% penalty. When i logged in and saw it, well the next year was spent trying to get them to fix the error, them promising they would and promising to stop the debt collection process which they didn’t. eve i’ve complained twice, had the complaint upheld and wa paid £100. They say they can’t do anything about it. finally got an officer to come out to see our records and on the very same day someone served us a statutory demand!
So i applied to the court to have it set aside, sent all the evidence and correspondence, really didn’t have any hope it’d work as I hear it’s rare to get one set aside, but thankfully a hearing date got sent through! So fast forward to yesterday and I have a Caseworker from HMRC practically hounding me to go to the court and withdraw the order! She says she can sort it all out for me, something i’ve heard every hmrc dept say a million times. she apologised and said the stat demand was made in error?!
I guess my question is, should i do this for them and why on earth are they so desperate for me to do it. When i told her i’d have to speak to my husband she said no problem but could i phone her back at 7.30 am next morning!

silvercar

So fast forward to yesterday and I have a Caseworker from HMRC practically hounding me to go to the court and withdraw the order! She says she can sort it all out for me, something i!!!8217;ve heard every hmrc dept say a million times.

Is she prepared to put this in writing, signed off at an appropriate level?

I would be inclined to tell her to sort it all out before the hearing. This gives her a timescale to work to. Why would you withdraw now, with only a vague promise that she will sort it out. If she is going to sort it out, she should do so. It would be a better use of her time if she did the work rather than hounding you.

Paul_DNAP

I agree, I would reply saying that if it is all sorted out to your satisfaction before the hearing date then you will withdraw your request for set aside at the hearing.
As soon as you cancel your hearing they have no incentive to do their job properly.

National_Debtline

Hi Lisabee77 and welcome to MSE,


I would be to agree with the other posters at this stage. I would suggest writing to HMRC, explaining what has been said to you, and advising them that if the statutory demand has been issued in error, then they should withdraw their petition but you are not comfortable withdrawing your set aside application based on what has happened to date.


Ensure that you go to the hearing, if it still stands, and take all of your evidence. You mentioned that there have been a large number of errors in this situation, but can you clarify, if you may owe more than £5k to HMRC? If you do owe more than £5k then I am afraid the bankruptcy application is still an option for them and the court can grant their application, even if they agree there has been string of errors.


Laura
@natdebtline

lisabee77

Yes, they say we owe 16,000 which is the total of all the vat we reclaimed over 6 years and another 11,000 in penalties.

We were lucky that we noticed the amount on the Government Gateway before the 30 day appeal was up. BUT i got citizens advice involved and they contacted the Compliance officer who told them the best way to sort it out was for him to do a visit. He claimed that it would be too much hassle for him to reverse his assessment and penalties so he!!!8217;d just let them stand and come out, he said he!!!8217;d also stop any debt collecting process. 8 months later I made an official complaint as he still hadn!!!8217;t made an appointment with us, and the debt collection process had escalated to visits by enforcement officers. The enforcement guy wasn!!!8217;t very complimentary about the state of the work of compliance officers. I was pregnant when this whole mess started, I!!!8217;ve got letters from a counsellor stating the the anxiety and depression I suffered during pregnancy was directly linked to the HMRCs treatment off me. I!!!8217;ve been sucicidal thinking I was going to lose our home when I hadn!!!8217;t done anything wrong. My son is now one, just to give you some idea of how long this has gone on!

It works the same way every time, I get a letter/call/visit demanding the money. I explain I don!!!8217;t have the money and ask them to check my notes. They say pay it anyway and ask for it back later. I explain I can!!!8217;t, we!!!8217;ve only one income and no business anymore. They say well ring us back in 2 weeks and don!!!8217;t worry it won!!!8217;t get passed along anymore. They do the complete opposite and pass it along to the next stage.

So here I am! I said to her i!!!8217;ve heard this before but she just said well if you don!!!8217;t withdraw the order it!!!8217;s going to cost you more!

lisabee77

We!!!8217;ve definitely been denied the right to appeal, and under the Human rights act been denied the right to a fair trial. The only reason I think we triggered a compliance visit was I didn!!!8217;t de-register property. Our accountant is really frustrated with them too, he has what they want, they just don!!!8217;t seem to want to sort it out!

foxy-stoat

You should be able to get the penalties removed, are you able to pay what you actual owe?

National_Debtline

Hello again,


In a situation like this it is important to get support for how the debt affects you personally, as well as financially. You could consider your GP or the Samaritans - 116 123.


As far as the debt itself is concerned, I would suggest calling one of the free debt charities ASAP. I understand there are a lot of underlying issues here, and that complaints have been raised and upheld, but if you owe more than £5000 to the HMRC then they may well be successful in their application for bankruptcy - despite the bad service. This means any assets that you have could be at risk (property, savings, vehicles) besides other implications of bankruptcy, such as the affect on your credit file, bank account and potential surplus income.


You need to get more personalised advice to discuss how this may affect you if they are successful and ways to try and stop it, if you can.


Laura
@natdebtline

lisabee77

Thanks for all the comments, it!!!8217;s really helpful.

Just to clarify, we don!!!8217;t believe we owe the HMRC anything. The assessment and penalties were raise against us because they had written to the wrong address and asked for us to send them the figures. Obviously when we didn!!!8217;t reply they raised assessments against us for every return we!!!8217;d ever made, then added the maximum penalty for evasion. Only for some reason this doesn!!!8217;t seem to matter to them, even though they held there hands up to the error and made us a compensation payment of 100.

I will look at getting a solicitor as if my set aside order is the only thing keeping them at bay then i!!!8217;d be foolish to withdraw?

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

As a business owner, my VAT Quarter ends next Tuesday. My accountant will do my return in the following days, and the DD will collect the full amount due, if any, on 12 September. No penalty.

How come OPs business due diligence cannot do this?

Pay your tax, I do.

lisabee77

Sorry but I don!!!8217;t think you!!!8217;ve really read my explanation of this situation. This was an error by HMRC, they raised an assessment for 6 years worth of returns (that had been filled in on time correctly every quarter) and then have failed to correct it despite admitting they made the mistake. I!!!8217;m asking for advice not judgement.