Interest details on HMRC Personal Tax Account. Updated to include how to access interest details.

Dazed_and_confused

HMRC do receive earnings and pension information each time a payment is made (real time information) so they should have a good idea of what you would be expected to earn next year.

But of course changes in jobs and things like pension drawdown where you can pretty much do as you please payment wise probably makes it harder to be very accurate.

If you get what seems to be an incorrect code I would say the best thing to do first is check your Personal Tax Account to see if the underlying data or income assumptions are accurate. There may be nothing else which needs changing other than that.

Vortigern

I'm in a similar position to other multi-account regular saver fans in that there are many accounts that require deletion, correction or replacement. My interest from 2017-18 was close to £2000 but all within the starting rate for savings and taxed at 0%. For 2018-19 my interest income is much reduced, but still over £1000 and having started my state pension (in addition to a company pension) I no longer have access to the starting rate.

I need to contact HMRC to make some corrections (for the accounts with no sort code)

Should I -

1. Tell them which accounts are closed, correct those that are still open, but not mention any new accounts?
2. Just give them my estimate of total interest income expected for 2018-19?
3. Give full details including the accounts they possibly don't yet know about?

Option 1 would have the same effect as completing the changes online. It would result in slightly lower tax until the banks next report interest to HMRC, hence deferring rather than avoiding the tax.

Options 2 & 3 would give a more accurate tax code and no deferral, but 3 would probably need to be dealt with by mail.

My new tax code ends LX - What does the X signify?

Dazed_and_confused

My new tax code ends LX - What does the X signify?

The L is part of your actual tax code and means your pension company can make an automatic uplift to your tax code for 2019:20 if HMRC don't send them a new code separately.

X means the code is being used on an emergency or non cumulative basis. So your pension company just used that code against each months pension from now on without any reference to what you have been paid earlier in the tax year. It is often used when your tax code goes down and stops a big tax deduction the first time the new code is used, clawing back tax back to the start of the tax year.

youngretired

Hi Dazed and confused, you seem to know what you are talking about when it comes to HMRC.

I did ask a question in January regarding HMRC taking this years tax for interest earned during this year using estimates and you kindly provided an answer. I have another question that hopefully you can answer as HMRC don't seem to be able to clarify this via live chat.

Where they are taking the tax during this tax year (having received an adjusted tax code) my husband was expecting them to take it all during the remaining tax year and this is what HMRC keep telling him, but when his February pay was taken it would appear that the tax has been split over 12 months? i.e. he owes estimated £72 and they have only taken £6 in February when he thought it would be £24.

Is this normal as my dad will be in the same boat and trying to make sense of this is so confusing. If HMRC do only take a portion of the estimated tax that is owed during 18/19 then when do they take the remaining amount?

Both my husband and dad paid their 17/18 tax via a payment online to hopefully simplify the tax in future.

MoneyGeoff

masonic wrote: »

This thread makes me grateful I was pushed into filing a tax return a couple of years ago. Perhaps I won't rush to tell HMRC I don't really need to do so any more.

Me too. I've been doing self assessment for many years but since my affairs are simple (PAYE plus a bit of saving interest) it takes literally minutes to complete. Most of the sections don't appear since they are not relevant. Most of the rest of it is auto-completed, leaving me to fill in my salary and savings interest and that's about it.

I think lots of people completely overestimate the complexity of self assessment. Perhaps it is difficult if you have businesses, BTLs, and other tax complication but for the average person it's way less hassle spending a few minutes completing a SA than spending hours on the phone to HMRC.

Spiggle

Thanks Dazed,

The calculation you've shown kinda makes sense but doesn't correlate to the 'format' of the coding notice. Thank you.
.

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

It wasn't clear what the £1,000 related to (you had deducted from your Personal Allowance for some reason) and without knowing what the interest estimate is it is impossible to say what the tax code might be. ...

Your comment quoted above is exactly why so many people are getting confused with the notice of coding recently sent out. I had deducted the £1000 from my PA precisely because thats what HMRC show as happening in the Notice dated 15 January 2019 received last week which led to my original question and concern.

What I have been seeking all along is an answer to how it will look or the 'format' of the Coding Notice I'll receive once my combined pensions are above the PA.

It is not sufficient to say that the net position is still the same i.e. no tax is payable, when ordinary people assume that if the untaxed savings interest is shown as a deduction against the PA it is a mistake. Anyone not working for HMRC, a tax advisory body or similar is going to project forward to the next TY and think 'oh my I need to move funds, make changes, etc.' unnecessarily. Whereas your reply shows the calculation they will use, do prepare for a lot more questions on this as new TY tax codes are distributed.

I am not alone in this either. There are many posts, threads and questions on these forums that are as equally bemused as I have been. I have taken no pleasure from reading others confused by a cost cutting government, seeking to reduce HMRC staff and thereby costs and push everyone on line.

Self Assessment is fine for those who got their heads straight early and invested and have large funds. Its fine for the self employed and business owners. It is not fine for us, the little people who are the Joe and Josephine public not wishing to become embroiled for weeks trying to resolve tax affairs that are, by the standards of a lot of the posters on here, small fry.

One that did make me laugh though was my friend, who is still working, on Saturday patiently sat and listened to my moans about this. Yesterday, she went for a coffee with another retired friend only to be assailed by virtually the same moans from that retiree! Her comment to me was she felt she'd stepped into her own groundhog day.

I note your reply to another poster to write to their MP. It is a good idea.

The government seems to view HMRC as a public service only insomuch as it is funded by the public purse and therefore must be cut but forgetting the service of the public that is so necessary. No doubt that their various rich donors get tax breaks for paying privately for advice, bully for them.

Suffice to say I wholeheartedly agree that the whole system is now a shambles of the highest order.

Just one last comment, I know that you disagree Dazed but there really does need to be an edit or possibly convergence on the articles on the main site regarding the SSA and PSA. The wording is misleading. It matters not one jot to me which order the SSA and PSA were announced by the govt but it matters hugely how, where and when those rates are applied or lost. It also needs to work through examples at varying levels of income both above and below the annual PA.

All the best,
Spigs

MoneyGeoff

drlabman wrote: »

Unfortunately, since I'm not working, and therefore don't see a PAYE section in my personal tax account, I can't see the list of accounts they know about. Any suggestion how I may get this information?

I would like to know the answer to this too.

drlabman

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

Was the letter a P800 or something else?

I don't see P800 anywhere on the letter. It's a Notice of Simple Assessment under Finance Act 2016. No, I don't know either.

Dazed_and_confused

That seems to be a new innovation!

Your original question was about a discrepancy between your figures and those used by HMRC and the link below has information about challenging a Simple Assessment demand

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye96301

drlabman

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

That seems to be a new innovation!

Your original question was about a discrepancy between your figures and those used by HMRC and the link below has information about challenging a Simple Assessment demand

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye96301

It seems you receive a Simple Assessment when you've underpaid (or overpaid, presumably) tax that can't be reclaimed via PAYE - which is my case. I'm not sure whether I want to query my tax due amount - because by my calculations it's wrong but in my favour. My calculations may be wrong of course. Still would be nice to see the breakdown, and a list of accounts, in my PTA though.