"HMRC Simple Assessment" letter received!

TUVOK

My son has just received a letter from the above HMRC section requesting a payment of nearly £1K.
The amount refers to before 2021 when he wad working for a national business and thus paid his income tax through PAYE.
My son is now disabled and surviving on state benefits and so this is both a complete shock and he is totally worried when his present benefits do not cover his outgoings and he exists from week to week.
Can any member throw any light on this predicament he finds himself in? is there any appeal? or is the HMRC request for payment with out any appeal?
As I wrote above , he worked for a national business and trusted that they would calculate his PAYE correctly or will HMRC come out with the standard answer that you should check your coding etc.
Thanks for any/all replies.

badmemory

Has he (or you) carefully checked this as it could be wrong.  They could have assumed he still had income for some time when he didn't.  Many won't agree with me but these are often wrong.  In my case always wrong although not by that much.  There should be an explanation of the charges being made.  Was his P60 or P45 for that time actually correct & does it agree with the assessment.

MikeJXE

Yep I had one of them dated 2nd Nov it stated I had been underpaid on my pension and is now rectified with a refund. 

They said I owed £90 for 22/23. plus a new tax code, I paid it immediately. 

3 Days dated 5th Nov I had another letter, disregard previous letter and that stated I owed £46 plus another tax code I ignored that thinking it will get sorted. 

27th Dec another letter, a new tax code and I owe £29 so I spent the next our and 5 min on the phone. 

The first people you get is PAYE, After explaining the letters he passed me to payments. They confirmed I had paid £90 but still read it as I owe £46, I disputed that and got put back to PAYE. The couldn't find the £90 so it's a good job I copied reference numbers of the payment I made .

It appears a mistake was made by DWP  I didn't owe £90 I owed £46 and will be refunded, the £29 is for next year.

So HMRC do not get everything right 

I suggest you call them 

TUVOK

Thank you, we'll try to do that.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

MikeJXE said:

Yep I had one of them dated 2nd Nov it stated I had been underpaid on my pension and is now rectified with a refund. 

They said I owed £90 for 22/23. plus a new tax code, I paid it immediately. 

3 Days dated 5th Nov I had another letter, disregard previous letter and that stated I owed £46 plus another tax code I ignored that thinking it will get sorted. 

27th Dec another letter, a new tax code and I owe £29 so I spent the next our and 5 min on the phone. 

The first people you get is PAYE, After explaining the letters he passed me to payments. They confirmed I had paid £90 but still read it as I owe £46, I disputed that and got put back to PAYE. The couldn't find the £90 so it's a good job I copied reference numbers of the payment I made .

It appears a mistake was made by DWP  I didn't owe £90 I owed £46 and will be refunded, the £29 is for next year.

So HMRC do not get everything right 

I suggest you call them 

That might not be how you see it it but that is correct from the perspective of how HMRC's Simple Assessment calculation works.  As that is a calculation of your income tax liability for a particular tax year.

Just like with Self Assessment at the calculation stage money you have paid isn't a factor.

So if the original calculation was £90 and you immediately paid £90 then the revised liability was £46 the Simple Assessment calculation would show £46 with no reference to the £90 you have paid.  

But you would of course be entitled to a refund of the £44 you have paid.

It basically mirrors how Self Assessment works as tax paid direct to HMRC by the taxpayer is never shown in the calculation.

badmemory

Which just proves that simple assessment really is not that simple.  Did you also know that the simple assessment is more expensive for the taxpayer than self assessment.  Self assessment rounds down to whole pounds whereas simple assessment doesn't.  It costs me a whole 20p extra a year via simple assessment, plus the phone call to tell them they have it wrong.

LHW99

Does he have any payslips from the time he wasworking that show the Tax he was paying (if no P60 / P45). They would show if the Co. was deducting PAYE tax, and should show his tax code at the time. May be useful when communicating with HMRC

TUVOK

LHW99 said:

Does he have any payslips from the time he wasworking that show the Tax he was paying (if no P60 / P45). They would show if the Co. was deducting PAYE tax, and should show his tax code at the time. May be useful when communicating with HMRC

My son is checking now, I doubt it! I have every one of my working life slips, as you say they can come in handy re tax queries etc

badmemory

Is it possible his payslips may be online, I believe some companies do that now.  Just something he may not have thought of.

MPCSouthwark

I returned to UK in October 2022 after many years overseas. My income is the basic pension and a private monthly pension of £206. HMRC has sent me a demand for £1250 for the tax year ending April 2023. Govt gateway has a problem.
Any ideas if this a scam

Dazed_and_C0nfused

MPCSouthwark said:

I returned to UK in October 2022 after many years overseas. My income is the basic pension and a private monthly pension of £206. HMRC has sent me a demand for £1250 for the tax year ending April 2023. Govt gateway has a problem.
Any ideas if this a scam

Do you mean a tax calculation letter or a debt collection letter?