Unique Tax Reference-Self Assessment

Tommo66

I received a letter from HMRC recently requesting me to contact them regarding Self Assessment
so I did...to my amazement they told me that according to their records, I had an incomplete tax return for 2009 and this incomplete tax return had accumulated fixed penalty charges going back 17 years with an outstanding amount owing of £2,766.78 I have always been employed an PAYE I have never been self employed and I do not recall creating a UTR number but it was 17 years ago so maybe I did? but I cant recall or prove if I did or not? What should I do?

Savvy_Sue

Did they sent a request for you to do a tax return then? Can you find out where they sent it? 

The thing is, if they ask for a tax return, and you don't do it, the costs start racking up then. But I thought you'd get reminders. And you can be asked to do a tax return even if you end up not actually owing any tax. It might not start by you requesting a UTR?

Bookworm225

are you certain this came from HMRC and is not in reality an attempted scam?

In general HMRC will not go back more than 4 years after the end of the tax year unless they suspect fraud has taken place - in which case the time period is unlimited.

as above, if you were in PAYE you would have had to be told to do a tax return, or to have voluntarily registered to do one and then failed to submit it? Did you?

That said £2700 does seem reasonable for the amount arising from failure to submit penalties (they are capped) plus interest on the capped penalty over 17 years. 

LITRG

You might need to take some professional help with this - the tax charities are there if you cannot afford an adviser: https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/getting-help-tax/help-tax-friends-family-professionals-or-other-organisations