HMRC self Assessment. Help desperately needed

muffin321

I am trying to help a relative who does not have access to a computer. The problem is as follows.
He is employed but only earns a small wage, not enough to pay NI. 3 years ago he decided to do some extra work to supplement his income. Wanting to do the right thing he registered for self assessment by phone and was given a UTR number. He has filled in a self assessment form every year since giving full details, including the page for self employment. He has kept copies of all these and also copies of the signatures showing the date and time they were signed for by HMRC. (sent by recorded delivery). He received nothing from HMRC in all that time. The amounts earned from self employment were only just above above the £1000 at which you are required to register (between approx 1100 and 1400 and he claimed the £1000 trading allowance on the forms.  He recently asked for an estimate of his state pension and was told he could purchase one extra year which would give him a full state pension. This is where his problems began.
He telephoned DWP on the number he was given. all he wanted to do was make a payment for the extra year. He was horrified to be told by the lady there that there was no record of any self employment on the computer. She asked him to go through his copies of every self assessment form he had submitted. By this time he had been on the phone for 55 minutes all of which he is charged for. After all this she said she would need to transfer him to self assessment, which she did. The person there asked him to hold the line, which he did, 10 seconds later he cut him off. He has since incurred over another 2 hours of phone charges trying to get through. Why did the first lady make him go through all the forms if she was just going to transfer him

Why would HMRC have no record when he has registered and has proof that 3 self assessment forms were signed for. . I should add that he had told them 3 times that he had no computer and asked them to post forms out. They never did and I had to print the relevant forms for him. So much for them saying, when the on line filing was introduced, that they would help people without on line access.

He has now incurred a total of over 3 hrs phone charges trying to sort this out. He cannot afford to keep doing this and it  has caused us both so much worry and frustration that he is about to give up. If he does so his state pension will be reduced which I consider totally unfair. He has done everything by the book and is simply being given the run around. I am in my mid 70s and he is 2 years from retirement.  In addition, if he reduces his self employment hours further, which he may well do in view of nearing retirement, he will not need to declare income  but I can see that trying to de register, so as not to get fined will again be a nightmare.
Please can anyone help and give us advice, particularly as there is a deadline for buying the extra years pension. I realise you cannot give reasons for HMRCs mess but any help would be greatly appreciated.

kayleighali

Could there be an error in his records and HMRC have the wrong address for him? Sending the forms out is an automated process so it's not like someone could have forgotten to put them in the post box or something similar. That would explain why he has never received any reminders or other letters either.

All he can really do is call HMRC to establish what information they hold for him. There will be long waits at the moment, is he using the 0300 number as this should be included in any sort of airtime package as coming off the minutes rather than being charged.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

HMRC seem to have two versions of self employment, one for Self Assessment and one specifically for National Insurance.

Just because he (presumably) didn't register for National Insurance purposes doesn't mean he isn't registered for Self Assessment.

But he should have been getting a Self Assessment calculation each year, even if just showed no tax was payable.

Has he contacted HMRC now to explain he should be registered as self employed for National Insurance purposes?

Jeremy535897

It is a common problem that first arose when class 2 NIC became collectible through self assessment. I suspect he did not complete a form CWF1. See https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/self-employment/how-do-i-register-tax-and-national-insurance

sheramber

He telephoned DWP on the number he was given. all he wanted to do was make a payment for the extra year.

Pension payment is nothing to do with DWP.

Did he phone  the Contributions Agency ?

Best time to phone HMRC is as soon as lines open. Start dialling just before opening time.