HMRC Simple and Self Assessment (and double bill)

stretcharm

Hi, not sure if anyone else has found themselves in the same situation as me. Last year I was asked to fill in a self-assessment and then later got a simple assessment. I didn't twig what the simple assessment was and at the end of the year filled in a self-assessment and paid the outstanding tax from untaxed interest. 

However, I didn't realise that the simple assessment was still there and had an outstanding amount. I got a letter a few months ago say i owed money, but I was sure I didn't and checked the gov site, and it said I didn't owe anything from my self-assessment. I should have called hmrc at this point, but I thought it must be a scam. Fast forward to this week, and I got a letter from a debt collection agency. AHHHH!!!. If this was as scam it was an elaborate one. I still wasn't sure.

So I did call HMRC first and it seems the simple assessment was still running and waiting for me to pay the same amount for untaxed. Took a couple of hours for them to sort it but they have now removed the simple assessment. 

So things i've learnt.
If you get a simple assessment, you don't need to do a self-assessment any more and get more time to pay. 
If you get a letter from HMRC about outstanding money. Call to check with them. However, be aware the self-assessment people cannot see the simple assessment. Crazy but true.
HMRC is not as joined up as you would expect, and if you are in this situation, you could easily pay for the same tax twice. You'd have thought the self assessment would override the simple one but no. 

Good news. I dont owe any money and I have not got the debt collectors after me any more.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

stretcharm said:

Hi, not sure if anyone else has found themselves in the same situation as me. Last year I was asked to fill in a self-assessment and then later got a simple assessment. I didn't twig what the simple assessment was and at the end of the year filled in a self-assessment and paid the outstanding tax from untaxed interest. 

However, I didn't realise that the simple assessment was still there and had an outstanding amount. I got a letter a few months ago say i owed money, but I was sure I didn't and checked the gov site, and it said I didn't owe anything from my self-assessment. I should have called hmrc at this point, but I thought it must be a scam. Fast forward to this week, and I got a letter from a debt collection agency. AHHHH!!!. If this was as scam it was an elaborate one. I still wasn't sure.

So I did call HMRC first and it seems the simple assessment was still running and waiting for me to pay the same amount for untaxed. Took a couple of hours for them to sort it but they have now removed the simple assessment. 

So things i've learnt.
If you get a simple assessment, you don't need to do a self-assessment any more and get more time to pay. 
If you get a letter from HMRC about outstanding money. Call to check with them. However, be aware the self-assessment people cannot see the simple assessment. Crazy but true.
HMRC is not as joined up as you would expect, and if you are in this situation, you could easily pay for the same tax twice. You'd have thought the self assessment would override the simple one but no. 

Good news. I dont owe any money and I have not got the debt collectors after me any more.

That won't always be the case, it will depend on why you are having to file a tax return.

But your general principle is correct, for a given tax year it is one or the other and if you have filed a Self Assessment return that will be the thing that your liability is based on for that tax year, the Simple Assessment should be cancelled.

stretcharm

Yes I would have thought that, but it wasn't cancelled until i explained to the simple assessment team i'd done a self-assessment and they confirmed. Maybe this bug has been fixed now, but I definitely had both. Lets hope so.

Albermarle

About five years ( whilst still working) I got a letter that I was to stop doing self assessments ( I think it was part of a drive to reduce the number of people doing self assessments).
Then nothing happened for a couple of years ( I did not notice) until I retired mid tax year and was due a rebate.
After no sign of one even 6 months after the end of tax year, I called them.
To cut a long story short, although I was under simple assessment and was prohibited from doing a self assessment, somewhere in the depths of the system I was still registered as a self assessment client.
So in fact nothing was happening at all, and the call handler could only apologise and put in in an internal request to solve it.
Eventually it was done and tax rebate arrived along with the simple assessment.
However still to this day there is one tax year that neither has a simple or self assessment for it. A limbo year between the two systems !