AIBU re HMRC

[Taxpanicmum]

DP did his self assessment for tax a few days ago. This is the one he does on top of his PAYE. This morning he has received by email a notice to say he has 'underpaid' tax by 10k and that they are adjusting his tax code to reclaim all of this 1k a month ( hahahaha hysterical laughing!!!)

He is absolutely livid, he is scrupulous about informing them of all his income/ changes and gets updated page coding notices two or three times a year and is never in arrears. There is nothing he has omitted to declare either this year or any previous years and all of his changes have been double checked by the company accountant.

DP is now saying he will close his business making 40 people redundant as quite frankly we never have any bloody money anyway and living with the uncertainty of the tax man coming knocking is too much, I have been sitting here in tears!

No point ringing them as apparently they basically never answer the phone. So we have to wait until the PAYE coding notice comes whenever that may be and just sit panicking until then.

Are you absolutely sure that the email is genuine? Its a good time for tax scams.

Tax scams? Never heard of that before, what's it all about? We are fairly sure it's genuine, got his self assessment number etc on it :-(

If he has a business employing 40 people then surely he has an accountant, why was he filling in his own self assessment?

Ring them.

They take a while to answer but you will hopefully be able to sort this asap.

you have my sympathy - we are "only" losing £200 a month. And this month is the last month of my mat pay - it's just at the point we can't afford to lose it... (this is due to a mix up on his taxable benefits so he's been slightly underpaying, he's not self employed).

Keep trying the phone and make a note when he made the call, they record all phone calls so if later theres any dispute, he can get them to relisten to what he said. (we have avoided a fine via this!)

Pay an accountant to check his self assessment.

I thought HMRC only communicated by post, never email?

Disclaimer: never needed to do my own return but always had letters re. Under/over payments and new tax codes.

Scam emails, telling you owe, getting you into a state of panic, you call, its a dodgy number they set up a payment plan. I wouldn't be surprised at receiving something like this for underpaid tax.

I never believe any email that says you owe cash, I always phone them up using a number I know that is genuine, not one provided on the email, to check that it is genuine.

Is he paid his PAYE via his own company? Anyway I would ask if they can put the code on a week 1/month 1 basis, that way it won't reclaim the whole amount in one go while you have chance to sort it out.

To be honest, the experiences I've had with HMRC (both with family and with work) is they simply make things up/cock up/haven't a clue what they are talking about. Whenever I've questioned my parents tax bill, they hold there hands up and accept my calculation.

I'd definitely call to verify, it could well be a scam. Even if it's not, HMRC have been known to get things catastrophically wrong so you should verify and challenge in any case, especialyl since the amount is so large.

I dont think that's a genuine email, it doesn't seem to be covered in the list of the ones they send out
www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/contacts.htm

www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/contacts.htm

HMRC do not communicate by email.

Hopefully this is a hoax.

Thanks for all the replies, wasn't expecting to get any as tax is such a boring topic. DP does have a company accountant but he only deals with the business accounts, then they have another 'big' accountant who signs of the years accounts etc, but no one officially 'helps' him do his own.
The point is he never under declares and all benefits have been declared at the time or when changes have been made ( ie when his company car was changed etc) so we are just flabbergasted by this.

He is killing himself working 60 hours a week with so much stress and we can't even afford to take our two kids abroad ( never have).

It just feels that you can't win!!

This really sounds bizarre - how much income would have been needed to require more than £10k tax paid on it (cba to do the sums, but it's mega)?

HMRC do answer their phones and I've found them to be very helpful in the past. I can't understand why you'd both just sit back and panic instead of investing a bit of time in making the call. As an alternative, a visit to a local tax office?

Just ring them.

Sorry I'm half asleep, pesky toddler and night time wakings

They most definately do not communicate by email, it's always by post. It's a scam

They don't email you I'm sure of it

Also best time to phone is first thing in the morning - 8:30am you won't have to wait too long to speak to somebody

Let us know how you get on

Just phone HMRC, look up the number, dont phone the one on the email

Ring them but do not use the number on the email.

They are unbelievable, the arguments I've had with them, after pushing and pushing they dropped my payments down to £40 a month (I owe 5k as their stupid system is a joke and it is absolutely their fault I 'owe' that, yet I still have to pay it).
I had to speak to fight to talk to a special hardship department where the woman was truly vile, to get it that low.

And www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/reporting.htm has a list of what to look out for and an email contact where you can report phishing to.

Optimist, DP is only just ( literally by a few quid) in the high tax band ( just over 50 k) he was lucky last year to have been able to take a dividend as the company has done well, but the tax on this was taken out and paid almost immediately by the accountant.

I am sure this must sound like loads to some but he is still paying the original bank security loan off which is amounting to a second mortgage, and after the usual mortgage, child care, etc etc we don't have spot to bloody piss in?

HMRC can only reclaim a max of £3k via a tax code, though I think this limit is due to change soon.

So go and ring them.