HMRC - Confusing - Who is right and who is wrong?

Butterfliesarepretty

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

I may be barking up the wrong tree here but it reads as though the op has been sent a PAYE calculation for 2016:17 and later, presumably as a result of not paying the tax owed from HMRC's calculation, asked to file a Self Assessment return for the same year.

And the op has now filed the return.

In which case everything that has happened since is irrelevant as you should only have one type of calculation per tax year, either PAYE (usually a P800) or Self Assessment, not both. Basically the Self Assessment will make the PAYE calculation redundant.

Perhaps the op can clarify exactly what has happened as it seems to me they are making a mountain out of a molehill. But there may be information not yet disclosed which puts a different slant on things.

Yes PAYE I should be. Im not self employed at all. I worked fulltime for a large company from 2016 Jan till June/July when I went off for a month with stress panic attacks. I didnt work again until the last week in September - signed up with an agency and got paid £200 a week for five days 25 hours a week. £2.60 tax was deducted each week. I did agency work until June 2018 and I was always paid weekly and not taxed as I was below the threshold. In August this year got a letter saying I need to do a tax return, phoned up explained im not self employed im part time employed, they didnt listen told me I still had to do it. I did it for all the years they asked for. Prior to that in June 2019 my tax calculation said I owed £1048 for 2016-17. I am now paying this back by dd and the extra £322 the tax return paid out to my bank. I need a kind of spreadsheet or tool to help me put all the figures in from my p60s payslips p45 etc etc to get me to understand this.

I dont have any clue what to do.

Pennywise

Butterfliesarepretty wrote: »

In August this year got a letter saying I need to do a tax return, phoned up explained im not self employed im part time employed, they didnt listen told me I still had to do it.

Self assessment isn't only for self employed. There are many reasons for being asked to do one. Including cases where there maybe confusion due to several different jobs in a year. Basically you have to do one if HMRC asks (they have the power to ask!).

Butterfliesarepretty wrote: »

I dont have any clue what to do.

First, as I said above, is compare your P45/P60s against the HMRC calculation you're disputing. Should be easy to match the figures against each other. Then you'll see where the difference is and take it from there. OR you can match your tax return figures against HMRC's calculation and again, should be easy to see which figures are different.

Pennywise

snilloct1957 wrote: »

My wife runs her own massage therapy business from home and is a self-assessed taxpayer (sole trader), paying tax on her profits. Up to now I have been filling in her tax form online and thought I had a handle on it. This year I got a mate who is a certified accountant to do it and, through a forensic examination of her accounts, was able to get a tax refund of over £2700. Turns out HMRC had been claiming money for future tax years they weren't entitled to. Don't believe a word of what HMRC says, if they can do this to me, they are doing it for a million other taxpayers as well. Let the professionals handle it and claim your inheritance back.

Sounds like you/your "mate" have a lack of understand of how it works, and in particular "payments on account".

Is "your mate" working in practice with a practising certificate? If not he isn't allowed to prepare/submit tax returns.

csgohan4

Pennywise wrote: »

Sounds like you/your "mate" have a lack of understand of how it works, and in particular "payments on account".

Is "your mate" working in practice with a practising certificate? If not he isn't allowed to prepare/submit tax returns.

Sounds like the OP's 'Mate' doesn't fully understand payments on accounts

https://www.gov.uk/understand-self-assessment-bill/payments-on-account

Please get an accountant and not ask Jack the lad from the Pub who doesn't know their responsibilities or how/when Tax is paid

snilloct1957

csgohan4 wrote: »

Sounds like the OP's 'Mate' doesn't fully understand payments on accounts

https://www.gov.uk/understand-self-assessment-bill/payments-on-account

Please get an accountant and not ask Jack the lad from the Pub who doesn't know their responsibilities or how/when Tax is paid

I don't mind if you insult me and the choices I make, but "my mate from the pub" has these letters after his name:- FCCA MBA BSc (Econ). I trust him implicitly to submit correct accounts to HMRC.

Pennywise

snilloct1957 wrote: »

I don't mind if you insult me and the choices I make, but "my mate from the pub" has these letters after his name:- FCCA MBA BSc (Econ). I trust him implicitly to submit correct accounts to HMRC.

But does he work in practice with a practicing certificate?

None of those letters mean he's up to date with modern day self assessment, in fact, the only one which will have included any personal tax would be FCCA which is minimal and nowhere near enough to actually act for personal tax return clients.

sheramber

Butterfliesarepretty wrote: »

Yes PAYE I should be. Im not self employed at all. I worked fulltime for a large company from 2016 Jan till June/July when I went off for a month with stress panic attacks. I didnt work again until the last week in September - signed up with an agency and got paid £200 a week for five days 25 hours a week. £2.60 tax was deducted each week. I did agency work until June 2018 and I was always paid weekly and not taxed as I was below the threshold. In August this year got a letter saying I need to do a tax return, phoned up explained im not self employed im part time employed, they didnt listen told me I still had to do it. I did it for all the years they asked for. Prior to that in June 2019 my tax calculation said I owed £1048 for 2016-17. I am now paying this back by dd and the extra £322 the tax return paid out to my bank. I need a kind of spreadsheet or tool to help me put all the figures in from my p60s payslips p45 etc etc to get me to understand this.

I dont have any clue what to do.

I didnt work again until the last week in September - signed up with an agency and got paid £200 a week for five days 25 hours a week. £2.60 tax was deducted each week. I did agency work until June 2018 and I was always paid weekly and not taxed as I was below the threshold.

There is a contradiction there. You say you had £2.60 deducted but then say you paid no tax.


First, you need to make a list of all your income for the period 6 April 2016 to 5April 2017 and list the tax deducted for each one- two columns side by side.

Make sure you don't include amounts on payslips that are included in the P45's or the P60

Check the totals you have with the totals shown on theHMRC calculation.

Do they agree?

sheramber

see OP's other thread where accountant has stated no tax was deducted by agency

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6072339/hmrc-do-they-know-what-they-are-doing

Caz3121

maybe confusing NI with 'tax'

Dazed_and_confused

It would help if the op could answer the following,

Have they completed and filed the Self Assessment return for 2016:17?

If yes have HMRC started an investigation into that 2016:17 return?

If the answers are yes and no then there is no need to try and challenge the PAYE calculation as that has to be cancelled as the Self Assessment takes priority.