A letter of Appeal for Self Assessment

tmm_aka_tracy

Hi Guys,

I really need some advice quickly on writing a letter of appeal to inland revenue. Briefly this is the story.

I was self employed between 2002 - 2003 - completed SA and paid taxes which were due the following tax year

March 2003 - Became employed full time (by a firm of accountants - and no they cant help me as I dont know any accountants personally:eek: )

I had been advised (by the tax people) that you need to complete 3 yrs of SA before they leave you alone, so my returns were completed up to Jan 05 - however, my return was submited on the 31/1, which led to a delay in my SA account being closed. And subsequently the tax office sent me a further SA. During the years I was employed, there had been no payment to be made to the tax office.

Apparently in April 06 I was sent a SA to complete (i dont rember, but Im not disputing this). I didnt complete the tax form for return, received a fine of £100 through the post (months and months later) and contacted the tax office. I was advised that as i was employed and wouldnt owe money that the fine would not be imposed, but that I needed to complete my 05/06 return to close the file.

I eventually sent the return back, and the tax office sent a statement saying I owed them £184.40, (additional employment benefits that hadnt been taxed - and they didnt know about them in previous years - they wont persue further for the two years i was employed and in receipt of these benefits I was assured) so, just for ease, I paid the £184 online just to get it out of the way. A few days later I received a tax statement showing that I had an outstanding balance of £204 (in addition to the £184) - from two £100 fines and interest accrued.

The helpline said that I could write a letter of appeal, and this is where I need the help. Written factually (as Ive tried to above) it is a bit, I dunno, 'stand-off-ish?' and I dont know that its the right tone.

Does anybody have any advice that would help me to compose a succinct letter giving justification as to why the fines shouldn't stand? I dont know if another fine will be imposed if I dont get this sorted very soon.

There is no excuse other than I was busy and was confident that my tax return would be £0 as in previous years and so didnt prioritise getting back to them, time slipped away and here I am....:mad:

Any help hugely appreciated and thanks for reading.

Tracy