Martin Lewis: Working from home due to coronavirus, even for a day? Claim TWO years' worth of tax re

Dazed_and_C0nfused

gozaimasu said:

The HMRC scumbags are one step closer to forcing me to register for a personal tax account. Still haven't heard anything back from my complaints. Absolute disgrace.

The fact is you do have a personal tax account.  So why not use it.

It is very poor service to not at least respond to a complaint but the whole saga suggests there any be a fundamental issue so why not grasp the bull by the horns and take a peek at your account and see what information is shown?

gozaimasu

The reason I haven't signed up is because I don't want to give HMRC my email adddress, IP address, device ID, etc etc. They've already got enough data about me, and they are not properly complying with ICO regulations. I am about to complain to ICO about their unacceptable and poor response to my subject access request last year. Not giving them any more data for them to treat me like manure with.

glider3560

gozaimasu said:

The reason I haven't signed up is because I don't want to give HMRC my email adddress, IP address, device ID, etc etc. They've already got enough data about me, and they are not properly complying with ICO regulations. I am about to complain to ICO about their unacceptable and poor response to my subject access request last year. Not giving them any more data for them to treat me like manure with.

You could make a new email address specifically for HMRC?  It takes about 2 minutes to create a new Gmail account.

Unless you pay for a static IP address, your IP will change each time your router is restarted, so you could restart that before and after using the service.

There isn't any other "device ID" that websites receive, but you could always use an incognito browser window to stop any cross-site cookies.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

So we're you able to successfully apply for the Covid-19 WFH expenses?

And if so what date you use as the start date for your claim?

glider3560

gozaimasu said:

Well, I caved in and made an account under duress. I just want my money. Now HMRC/The Government know my email address and phone number which I am very unhappy about. The "service" is terrible, and it's still a BETA service so I've given feedback about how crap it is. Can't even see a list of bank accounts for the bank and building society interest.

I can see that they have marked my complaint from March as being "complete" and I can see that they received my additional complaint on 13 July with an expected completion date of 3rd August. Here we are a month later. Absolute disgrace.

Do they have your correct postal address (i.e. actually on their records, not just on the letters you've sent them)?  That could explain why you are not receiving their correspondence?

gozaimasu

How do you use the HMRC online account to see the list of bank and building society accounts? There was a thread on here somewhere about this kind of thing but I can't find it.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

gozaimasu said:

How do you use the HMRC online account to see the list of bank and building society accounts? There was a thread on here somewhere about this kind of thing but I can't find it.

I don't think that option is available anymore.  

There was a thread on the Savings & Investments board but don't think there have been new comments for a while.

gozaimasu

Scumbags are charging me tax on interest I did not receive. I earned absolutely nowhere near the allowance so they've just completely made it up. With interest rates so low you'd have to be loaded to earn anywhere near that amount. (and no it's not based on previous year's information, I tried to work out how they calculated it!)

I even sent them a letter by post in July listing all of the accounts/interest earned and showing that I earned nowhere near the allowance but they've completely ignored it. I absolutely hate being part of this system. Complete and utter incompetence.

Re: WFH allowance they've adjusted my current year's tax code to allow for 2020-2021 WFH at £6/week for 52 weeks. I wanted a refund which is why I chose to send the P87 forms in the post, since you tick a box to say that you want to receive a cheque. They've obvs completely ignored that too. Utterly ridiculous, I hate them.

Now I have to make another SAR requesting list of bank and building society accounts plus another complaint re: ignoring my July letter listing all of the interest showing that I don't owe them any tax. Raging doesn't even begin to cover it.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

gozaimasu said:

Scumbags are charging me tax on interest I did not receive. I earned absolutely nowhere near the allowance so they've just completely made it up. With interest rates so low you'd have to be loaded to earn anywhere near that amount. (and no it's not based on previous year's information, I tried to work out how they calculated it!)

I even sent them a letter by post in July listing all of the accounts/interest earned and showing that I earned nowhere near the allowance but they've completely ignored it. I absolutely hate being part of this system. Complete and utter incompetence.

Re: WFH allowance they've adjusted my current year's tax code to allow for 2020-2021 WFH at £6/week for 52 weeks. I wanted a refund which is why I chose to send the P87 forms in the post, since you tick a box to say that you want to receive a cheque. They've obvs completely ignored that too. Utterly ridiculous, I hate them.

Now I have to make another SAR requesting list of bank and building society accounts plus another complaint re: ignoring my July letter listing all of the interest showing that I don't owe them any tax. Raging doesn't even begin to cover it.

There is no "allowance" for savings interest, presumably you mean one of the two 0% rates applicable to interest?

Can you confirm the description used on your tax code notice against the £312(?) that has been included. 

gozaimasu

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

There is no "allowance" for savings interest, presumably you mean one of the two 0% rates applicable to interest?

I personally didn't see anything wrong with the use of that word since we are "allowed" to earn a certain amount of interest before they start charging tax on anything above it.

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Can you confirm the description used on your tax code notice against the £312(?) that has been included. 

Yes, £312 under "Job Expenses". Is the reason you're asking because you suspect this is for the current tax year? Is the current tax year claimable for only working a few days from home during the tax year, as it was for 2020-2021? You have opened my eyes to a whole other potential issue to sort out.