Unknown Income: HMRC timescales?

pink_pirlie · 11 December 2018 at 4:04PM

Apologies if this is the wrong board - please move if so. I couldn't see where else it would be better placed.

Back in June I got an email to say my tax code had been updated so I logged into my HMRC account to see why.

A significant amount of unknown income, for a firm I have no affiliation with had been added to my tax account with a resulting underpayment of tax bill.

At the time, and at a number of times since, I have spoken with HMRC about this.

They originally said it could take a couple of months to be resolved but it has now been 6 months and this income is still showing as attributed to me.

Every time I have spoken to HMRC since they say they can't tell me anything about the investigation and are unable to give more information.

I'm due to submit my self-assessment shortly and am concerned it may affect this and my tax code for next year. HMRC have been particularly unhelpful given they won't tell me anything!

As you can imagine, I cannot afford to be out of pocket as a result of this, or have extra pay deducted each month.
At the moment I don't place a great amount of trust in them to have it fixed by then given the time passed already with no satisfactory conclusion.

Has this happened to anyone else and if so, how long did it take to get sorted?

xylophone · 11 December 2018 at 5:12PM

I have spoken with HMRC about this.

Time to put it in writing.

I'm due to submit my self-assessment shortly

An opportunity to do the above.

jimmo · 14 December 2018 at 11:12PM

I see from your post in another thread that HMRC are ensuring that this issue is not affecting your current PAYE deductions.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5907941

Self Assessment is exactly that. You make your own assessment of your tax liability and HMRC can either accept your self assessment or Enquire into it.
If your situation is similar to the OP's in that other thread mentioned above then HMRC should probably formally open an Enquiry into your Self Assessment but also tell you that the Enquiry is subject to enquiries elsewhere and they will contact you again when those enquiries are concluded.
That would then mean that your own tax affairs should carry on pretty much as normal. However, PAYE records use National Insurance Numbers (NINo) for reference purposes and, one way or another, your NINo is being used by someone else. If that was a simple mistake it could easily take a couple of months to sort out. At the other end of the scale, if it is being used to systematically defraud the tax system, it could take years and years. Even then that doesn't necessarily mean that your identity has been stolen. Far more likely that the fraudsters simply made up a NINo and you just happen to be the one with the genuine one.
You probably need to keep a closer eye on your tax affairs than many of us do but at least HMRC are already aware of the problem.

Luna2B · 18 December 2018 at 9:02AM

Your not alone, my husband has had the same he is PAYE and he had a P800 last week to say he was due a tax refund. On there was two companies from 2017/2018 that he had never heard of. He called HMRC straight away and when he eventually got through to the correct person he was told this happens a lot and is often because a digit is given wrong on the system. One of the companies has actually paid the correct amount of tax so we are thinking there is a digit wrong on the system, the director for this company is from India and it is now dissolved. The other company hasn’t paid any tax but has only paid a small amount in, where my husband works the accounts department checked this one, the director of that company opened eight companies in one day this company dissolved October this year but the director lives in the UK and works from a virtual office. So I’m not sure with this one. HMRC told us you must put this in writing which we have done. Hope you get yours resolved soon.

dont_use_vistaprint · 18 December 2018 at 10:53AM

They are so busy at the moment, I am waiting for a bunch of stuff that will likely make my return late but they have said they will extend deadlines and not charge penalties if its late due to waiting on them

Unknown Income: HMRC timescales?

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