Tax treatment of Teacher's Pension Refund due to Goodwin Ruling

[Deleted User]

It's unlikely you will receive a reply soon as HMRC has a substantial backlog of post.

If you log in to your personal tax account you can check on progress and there's a link to find out when to expect a reply.

I'm waiting for a response to information I sent last month and HMRC expect to deal with it in March 2024.

lib21by

Gosh ! When I worked in a large factory running 24/7, in charge of planning, they were allowed to phone me at home in the evening up to 11pm if they had a problem (machine breakdown etc), and expect an answer there and then

sheramber

If that was the basis of your employment that is fine.

Once upon a time you could phone your doctor at 11pm and get an answer and possibly  house call.

Life has moved on and contracts have changed.

HMRC employees do not have it in their contract to provide answers  until 11 pm at night.

LHW99

Trouble at the moment is getting them to answer calls in office hours at times

sheramber

Best time to phone is as soon as lines open so you are at the front of the queue.

Have you tried this

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-hmrc

lib21by

If that was the basis of your employment that is fine.

No part of my employment contract, purely informal, and I doubt if any of my bosses were aware

lib21by

I have just had a new coding for this year which they say is due to " We think that you will owe HMRC £(tiny amount).
No mention of Goodwin or of the £(several thousand), and no apology. I shall let sleeping dogs lie.

sheramber

lib21by said:

If that was the basis of your employment that is fine.

No part of my employment contract, purely informal, and I doubt if any of my bosses were aware

You say they were allowed contact you and expect an answer. Who allowed them?  Your choice?

Difficult to answer a query when you are at home with no access to the  computer system in the office. 

lib21by

Yes, not a problem. Perhaps as I started work before the age of computers and systems, I was used to having knowledge in my head. And anyway if something happened after 11pm, they had to make up their own mind.

More important, re pension arrears, I found on 
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye70023
'Legally, an employee’s tax liability on a payment of arrears arises in the tax year that the employee was originally entitled to be paid the extra amounts, not in the year that payments are eventually made.'

I still think it would have been nice to have had an apology from HMRC, but again maybe that's another age thing.

[Deleted User]

I'm not sure why HMRC should be apologising.

It's unlikely HMRC received the same detailed breakdown you were given by your pension provider. Their systems reacted automatically to the large pension payment in 2022/23.

Sometimes, we have to check things ourselves and provide information so our tax position is correct. Payment of pension arrears for earlier years can be one of those times.