Can I stop HMRC sending me a Simple Assessment?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

Earning more than £100k has now stopped being a reason to file a return.

I don't think claiming relief on Gift Aid donations has been a reason for a very long time.  Unless maybe for very, very large amounts.

HICBC is still a reason, although I think there was a budget announcement which suggested even that was going to change in the future.

DRS1

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

Yes As @T@TheSpectator says Self Assessment is not the problem.  It is Simple Assessment I am trying to stop (both shorten to SA which doesn't help).  I do feel like HMRC are trying to tax me twice on the same income.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

DRS1 said:

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

Yes As @T@TheSpectator says Self Assessment is not the problem.  It is Simple Assessment I am trying to stop (both shorten to SA which doesn't help).  I do feel like HMRC are trying to tax me twice on the same income.

I don't think they are "trying" to tax you twice on the same income.  They are taxing you twice on the same income (or at least some of it).

In a game of rock, paper, scissors, Self Assessment beats Simple Assessment, it's just getting HMRC to put your records in the correct position to stick to that which seems to be the problem here.

Sarahspangles

DRS1 said:

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

Yes As @T@TheSpectator says Self Assessment is not the problem.  It is Simple Assessment I am trying to stop (both shorten to SA which doesn't help).  I do feel like HMRC are trying to tax me twice on the same income.

If you follow https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return does that confirm you’re a taxpayer who needs to submit a return? Rather than someone who wants to. 

DRS1

Sarahspangles said:

DRS1 said:

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

Yes As @T@TheSpectator says Self Assessment is not the problem.  It is Simple Assessment I am trying to stop (both shorten to SA which doesn't help).  I do feel like HMRC are trying to tax me twice on the same income.

If you follow https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return does that confirm you’re a taxpayer who needs to submit a return? Rather than someone who wants to. 

Yes I need to do Self Assessment return and have no problem doing it - after 30 years it is familiar.  It is this new fangled Simple Assessment thing that bugs me and the fact that HMRC do not seem connected up enough to know that I shouldn't be getting it.

DRS1

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

DRS1 said:

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

Yes As @T@TheSpectator says Self Assessment is not the problem.  It is Simple Assessment I am trying to stop (both shorten to SA which doesn't help).  I do feel like HMRC are trying to tax me twice on the same income.

I don't think they are "trying" to tax you twice on the same income.  They are taxing you twice on the same income (or at least some of it).

In a game of rock, paper, scissors, Self Assessment beats Simple Assessment, it's just getting HMRC to put your records in the correct position to stick to that which seems to be the problem here.

I shall do my best to make sure they don't succeed.

MetaPhysical

TheSpectator said:

MetaPhysical said:

OP,  may I ask what the issue is with SA???  Personally, I actually like to do a SA since it tidies everything up and even offers you some benefits in that you can claim tax on charitable donations etc.  My fiancee was equally terrified but when I showed her she was "Is that all there is to it?".  It takes 30 minutes per year to get all your tax affairs sorted.

HMRC want less people to do SA but our crazy tax system is so complex that more and more of us are having to do them to keep our finances in order.  Nearly every one of my work colleagues has to do one and none of us earn more than 100k.

I think you have missed the point - the OP DOES want to self assess but HMRC keep sending a P800 Tac calc (non SA).

As to your last point, pretty sure your colleagues will meet one of the many SA criteria if they 'have' to self assess rather than do it through choice

And you don't need to SA to claim tax relief on charitable donations.

Yes, understood.  However, with SA you can claim charitable donations, pension payments, employment and other allowances in one place, electronically.  You do not have to send off umpteen forms to HRMC to separately claim for all these things individually, forms which may or may not be ignored.

Albermarle

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

DRS1 said:

OK I read the manual page - well skimmed it really after I realised I had very little clue what it was talking about.
What is NPS?  Does it generate simple assessments and or tax codes?
In the past I have had to speak to someone in self assessment to get them to "press a button" to tell simple assessment I am in self assessment.  Last year I was told there was "another button" which needed to be pressed.
This year the self assessment lady assured me there were no "buttons" and she would need to ask someone how to do it (and she thought she needed to speak to simple assessment - I told her that in the past simple assessment people had said only self assessment people could do whatever was needed.
It is quite frustrating..

Yes, that is HMRC's PAYE system.

It sounds like maybe the two systems (NPS/PAYE and Self Assessment) aren't talking to each other as they probably should.

Not something many people have posted about so I'm not sure how easy it will be to fix but if you are constantly in Self Assessment (and not just because you choose to file tax returns which HMRC haven't asked for) then you shouldn't be getting end of the tax year calculations like a P800 (informal calculation) or PA302 (Simple Assessment).

My own experience was kind of a reverse of the OP's, but also highlights some issues in their system.

I was doing SA's when I was working, and then one day got a letter saying this year would be the last, and I should not fill in a SA return after that. I presumed this was part of a process to reduce the number of people doing SA returns, and my finances were fairly simple. 
I in fact tried to do a SA the following year online as usual, but it blocked me. 
It was when I retired a couple of years later and was due a tax rebate, I could not see from my online account that any tax calculation at all had been done for a couple of years.
So phone calls to HMRC.
They said there was a glitch in the system and although it had blocked me from doing SA, it had not transferred me over to the standard PAYE/simple assessments system, so I was till in their system as a SA client, even though I was not allowed to fill an SA in. The operator said they could not fix it and had to raise an internal request . Of course nothing happened then or after subsequent calls, until I raised a complaint.
Then suddenly in the middle of the night I got an e mail that the simple assessments had been done, and a rebate was due . It has been OK since.