Help HMRC Simple assessment 2018-19 Annual year

Bushmaster1996

I have an issue I have been trying for 9 hours to wrap my head around. Today I received a letter from HMRC claiming I owe them £400 for the period ending April 2019. I opened the letter with a bit of a shock and thought this was a mistake, as I have never had this before, I thought it was a scam, however after I contacted them by phone apparently it was not. On the letter it said they had sent me a simple assessment calculation (PA302). I have never heard of this form, let alone opened one! They have sent me a statement of liabilities with the 28 day notice and how to pay. I have no access on the app for this tax year due to it being older than 5 years.

After speaking to the agent it became clear that this was going to be difficult. He was very passive aggressive and claimed that I will be paying. He claimed I had 3 jobs that year when I only had 2 and not at the same time. He said I was put on the wrong tax code. I explained that I had never received this letter and he said "well if you are telling the truth then that's you at fault for not keeping your details up to date". He claimed they had sent three letters one in October 2019 then the last being March 2021. After reexplaining that I had not received any, and why it has taken 3 years to send this reminder, he replied with keeping the planet green and three letters is generous by their standards and it is down to me to sort. It was a machine who randomly selected who and when to send the letter. Then tried to say maybe royal mail didn't deliver. I asked for proof of postage and he said that It is not possible, I only wanted to know when it was posted and to which address. He said only the first one was returned to sender. I have always received a p60 and p800 at the end of the financial year and said why this would not be put there and he said it is two different units, so it is the other departments workload now. It is weird I have had my annual letters throughout the years but not this single letter.

I enquired why it would not have been taken out of my personal allowance and he said it must have been due to it not being possible in that financial year. Which is wrong as I worked constantly for the past 10 years. He claims that in 2021 I did call regarding this letter and we made a payment plan. Which again is incorrect and this was another issue all together as I was asking for information about my tax code as I was paying more tax than my colleagues. The gentlemen then said it was due to an underpayment but it would be taken from my current tax year. He never mentioned about a 441 pound debt from 2018. When I asked what the transcript said regarding the call he refused to answer.

I asked to appeal to which he said I don't meet the criteria as I made a call in 2021, and have acknowledged the debt. Which is all untrue, I asked for a copy of the transcript to which he made a sarcastic comment about I would have to work their first. I asked for a copy of the PA320 and subject access request, he said He will send the PA320 but the SARS I have to file and they will not extend my deadline for payment.

Any advice? This is annoying as I have now stopped working fulltime as I go to Uni in 3 days to become a mature full time student! Thanks guys

eskbanker

Bushmaster1996 said:

I have always received a p60 and p800 at the end of the financial year

Do these accurately and fully reflect your taxable income and tax paid for the year(s) in question?

Bushmaster1996

eskbanker said:

Bushmaster1996 said:

I have always received a p60 and p800 at the end of the financial year

Do these accurately and fully reflect your taxable income and tax paid for the year(s) in question?

I don't actually have them to hand, I called them today and he claimed that the employer put me on the wrong tax code and I did not pay any tax during my 4 months there. They have sent me the employment history and I have put in a SARS in order to see. 

They claim they sent the company a tax code to use, but the company used a different one

I feel they failed in:

- Notifying me within a reasonable time frame.
- This should have been picked up so they could have took it from the next year through additional taxing.

eskbanker

Sure, I'm certainly not trying to defend their delay in contacting you, but they do have wide-ranging powers to investigate such matters for a long time, so it'll remain important to get to the bottom of the actual issue of whether there was an underpayment, which should be evident from those documents when you do have them to hand, especially the P60 relating to the employment under question and the subsequent P800.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Once a Simple Assessment (PA302) has been issued for a particular tax year then, unless a Self Assessment return is completed, the Simple Assessment will remain in place for any amount of tax underpaid.

This applies even if the tax due could in theory be collected via the tax code of a later tax year.

This is explained in HMRC's guidance.

Years in Simple Assessment will stay in Simple Assessment if they remain underpaid following a re-reconciliation. This includes where a re-reconciliation underpayment would be eligible to be collected by the tax code

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye96305

PralineParis

The almost exact same thing happened to me. Simple Assessment (PA302) was sent to me with no previous correspondence. I had multiple jobs in the tax year ending 05 Apr 2019. I was apparently put on the wrong tax code and they want me to pay £450 all these years later as a full time student. Maybe being a student triggers them somehow?

HMRC have screwed up my Self Assessment trying to charge me thousands££ years after I stopped trading in my business. I filed for indefinite hiatus on my business and they still tried to charge me. In that case, they were apologetic and cancelled those charges sharpish after I appealed and complained. In this Simple Assessment case there was no sympathy from the HMRC. My partner seems to think there is a way to 'make it go away' however it was before I started trading so I doubt it.

Do you have an update on your situation?

darkidoe

Same here. Have a Simple Assessment letter for Tax year ending 2019!! No breakdown. Just a description of 'Simple Assessment IT' with a reference number on a 'Statement of Liabilities' I wonder how legitimate is this. They have passed my details to debt collectors now. which is annoying. 

Anyone had successful appeals against this?

Hoenir

darkidoe said:

Anyone had successful appeals against this?

You'll need to disprove the HMRC's assessment in order to do so. By providing the factual evidence. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

darkidoe said:

Same here. Have a Simple Assessment letter for Tax year ending 2019!! No breakdown. Just a description of 'Simple Assessment IT' with a reference number on a 'Statement of Liabilities' I wonder how legitimate is this. They have passed my details to debt collectors now. which is annoying. 

Anyone had successful appeals against this?

I suspect it is genuine but I'd say the first step is to ask for the actual calculation of how the tax owed has been arrived at.

Until you have that you really won't know if it is correct or not.  And I presume you would want to be sure you did owe the tax before paying anything.

darkidoe

Yes I have written back to HMRC to ask for clarification. 

I would also point out there is scope for asking HMRC to write off any arrears if any of the following applies: 

You can ask HMRC to write off the tax you owe if all of the following apply:

• HMRC have not used information provided to them, for example about a change of job
• HMRC told you about the tax you owe more than 12 months after the end of the tax year in which they received your information - tax owed from the last tax year is unlikely to be written off no matter when HMRC received information about your change of circumstances
• you have a reasonable belief that your tax affairs are in order for the years you owe the tax and HMRC agree

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-did-not-act 

Might be a avenue to explore.

mybestattempt

darkidoe said:

Yes I have written back to HMRC to ask for clarification. 

I would also point out there is scope for asking HMRC to write off any arrears if any of the following applies: 

You can ask HMRC to write off the tax you owe if all of the following apply:

• HMRC have not used information provided to them, for example about a change of job
• HMRC told you about the tax you owe more than 12 months after the end of the tax year in which they received your information - tax owed from the last tax year is unlikely to be written off no matter when HMRC received information about your change of circumstances
• you have a reasonable belief that your tax affairs are in order for the years you owe the tax and HMRC agree

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-did-not-act 

Might be a avenue to explore.

I think you would have difficulty asking for the tax to be written off  (under ESC A19) as HMRC will say you were notified of the arrears within 12 months when they issued the 2018/19 simple assessment to you in 2019.

If HMRC decide not to write off under ESC A19 you cannot appeal that decision.