Can anyone help calculate this tax please.

[Taxhelpneededplease]

This person has pensions which are
State pension £9973.08
private pension £3076.98
There’s interest of £15.04 they insist is included
Total £13,065.10. No other income, no other benefits.
I thought the single person allowance was £12500, leaving taxable income
as £565.10. However HMRC online is saying they have to pay nearly £2000 tax. There’s nothing owing from previous years.
What have I done wrong? Tried to say take to an accountant but they’re now upset over money they think they owe and worried about cost of accountant.
Any advice welcome.

Personal allowance is 12570 and the interest is covered by savings allowance so not taxable. Are you sure the personal allowance hasn’t been allocated against private pension and the number you have is the excess.?

I’ve no idea, just know I’ve got a friend in tears.
That is all of their income and the tax calculation is saying over £2000:
(copied and pasted with permission)
Total amount due for 2022-23 £2,090.40
Plus
First payment on account for 2023-24 £1,045.20
Total to be added to Self Assessment account due by 31 January 2024

I thought they would owe approx a quarter of the £565 and cannot understand this calculation. I’ve never got it wrong before, I’ve checked all the figures are correct.

I’d be happy to help but would need to se the actual breakdown of the calculations

Check the state pension isn’t in there twice as hmrc software might include it automatically and then if you added it, it would double up

Can you find out why HMRC are treating them as self-employed when they only have pension income?

Have they been self-employed in the past?

Do they have any other income such as rental from a property?

The first thing you need to do is apply to have the payment on account reduced to nil due to change of circumstances.

Can't offer specific advice without seeing the whole calculation, which will tell you where the income thy have used is from. Happy for you to PM me if your friend agrees.

It doesn’t say they are self employed anywhere

As others have said I'm happy to help but need a bit more info, and yes why are they required to do a tax return?

Thank you everyone.
Person was counted as self employed as they owned a property they rented out for about 5 years. All the rent was declared and tax paid. Flat was sold and declared in last years tax return and tax paid.
Unfortunately friend has become rather frail in last year, asked me to help do this today which looked so simple with just the two figures.
I can’t see that their pension has been put in twice but I’ll go through it again.

HMRC might still be taking flat income into account. They don't want to miss getting any income so err on the side of caution just in case. I think if you phone them up you might be able to sort it.

And the prize goes to @PickledPurplePickle
This is exactly what had happened.
THANK YOU.
Thanks lovely Mumsnet tears for your suggestions. Friend now ok, £95 tax due, they’re happy with that.
I am wearing the dunce’s hat in the corner.
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Thanks everyone.

In that case then I'd get your friend to call (if you sit with them you can speak on their behalf once they have given permission to the advisor to speak to you) and get the return cancelled. They will ask for reasons why but it should be a straightforward phone call, the hardest part will be getting through to them! If you can call at 8am that's my best advice.

Ahh x-post glad you have got sorted!

Yay 😀

if you can help your friend call hmrc and request their self asssessment record is closed down

What a lovely friend you are Taxhelp and all credit to contributors Mumsnet at its best 👍🏿☘️🙏🏽

I like this thread!

Now we’ve both had a strong cuppa and calmed down we’ve been able to laugh about it (me!) putting in the state pension twice. As she said, give her twice the money, she’ll pay the tax 🙂
It was the calm responses from all the Mnetters above that made me go through it and check again.

OP mentions payments on account in the first post, only self-employed usually make them as employed people with additional income tend to have their tax codes amended.

Irrelevant now though, as you solved the mystery! 👍