Taxman wants money, although wife not working.
grumpyofwhitecross
Posts: 108 Forumite
in Old Threads
In 2009, my wife was off sick due to osteoarthritis in her ankle. Various operations later, she is still in a boot and has had to stop work on medical grounds.
Before she went sick, the firm she worked for supplied a company car, as a taxable benefit. Not a problem. She has had a letter from HMRC saying that although she was sick from April 1st 2009 to 1st March 31st 2010, she has still got to pay the tax for the use of the car.
She was not paid for that financial year, at all, so how can they say that she owes them tax ? The car was left with us, as the firm was hoping she would return but this didn't happen, we didn't use the works car as we had our own transport.
Can we refuse to pay the tax or do we have to pay it
regardless ? She is worrying herself sick that she might go to prison over this.
Thanks for reading.
Before she went sick, the firm she worked for supplied a company car, as a taxable benefit. Not a problem. She has had a letter from HMRC saying that although she was sick from April 1st 2009 to 1st March 31st 2010, she has still got to pay the tax for the use of the car.
She was not paid for that financial year, at all, so how can they say that she owes them tax ? The car was left with us, as the firm was hoping she would return but this didn't happen, we didn't use the works car as we had our own transport.
Can we refuse to pay the tax or do we have to pay it
regardless ? She is worrying herself sick that she might go to prison over this.
Thanks for reading.
0
Comments
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Presumably she either got sick pay from her company or SSP.
It really depends on her earnings/salary for the year.
Tell her not to be daft, prison isnt even in the equation,
(said in the nicest posibble way of course.)make the most of it, we are only here for the weekend.
and we will never, ever return.0 -
If she earned nothing during that year, then her liability to tax would be the taxable benefit of having the car less her personal allowance of around £7k (if you look on the HMRC website you can find the relevant figure for that tax year). I'd be surprised if the benefit in kind of having a car was that much unless it was something special but its a long time since I calculated that sort of thing! I think there also used to be a rule that BIK's weren't considered for tax unless earnings (probably including the Benefit in Kind (BIK)) were over £8500 so again I think she should be clear unless she has a big gas guzzling BMW or something.
However its worth bearing in mind that if she was paid sick pay, or income replacement via an insurance policy she may have sufficient income to make the benefit in kind taxable in which case, yes you do have to pay it.
It would be useful to ask HMRC for a full assessment of income for that year, because on that basis it should be clear whether its just the car against personal allowance or whether they are assessing on something else such as taxable benefits or savings income or something.Adventure before Dementia!0 -
She had sssp for 6 weeks from January that year and then nothing !0
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