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.

I would be very surprised if that email is genuine. If it is, then there is a pretty good chance that there's been a mistake of some sort.

I've done my first tax return (now self-employed on top of usual job) and they have now decided they owe me nearly £300 from overpaid PAYE. I contacted them months ago to tell them that I was quite clearly overpaying, as I was on SMP for the first half of the financial year, and then working part time for the second half, and yet being taxed as though I had been on my current salary for the whole year. They were absolutely adamant it was right, and that I might even be underpaying. And now, sure enough, the overpayment is pretty much spot on what I told them it was going to be.

They don't seem in a hurry to pay it back, mind.

HRMC do not communicate by email to tell you you owe them tax! Phone them.

Stop panicking. It's conceivably likely the email is a scam. Ring them, but as others have said DON'T use the contact details on the email. Go directly via the official HMRC website.

I don't think HMRC even have my email address.

I'm an accountant. A few points:
Hmrc do not contact you by email. They could not recover 10k via tax code. If your husband has had a dividend on top of his 50k earnings he will have additional tax to pay as this will take him into the higher rate band and only basic rate will have been paid. He is not paying himself in a tax efficient way if he us drawing a 50k salary. And finally the accountants who "sign off"the aaccounts would normally prepare the directors tax returns (for a fee obviously). I would question whether your husband has the "best accountant" on thejob to be honest. Are they cheap by any chance?

I have been receiving scam emails from HMRC on a weekly basis for several months. HMRC do not communicate by email.

I've always found hmrc pretty good at answering the self assessment helpline. And when I owed them £5k (work had given me the wrong end of year numbers) they reduced the payments to £50 per month when asked.

Just call the number on their website, and yes as fairy said change accountants!

Call them but don't use the number on the email. Sounds like a scam.

They don't email you.. They like to send letters.. usually 3 all saying the same thing.

Give them a ring and tell them about this email at least.

Why is the OP still on this thread when so many people have told her that HMRC never send out emails?

Why aren't you phoning them?

I did my self assessment months ago, I do it online using the Gateway thingy? Anyway, if your dh has an online password he can go into that and check there.

I can only repeat what others have said on here and that is that HMRC communicate by letter, not by email. Is the number on the email the same as the actual number for HMRC? What is the reply-to email address? Are they asking you to give them your bank details? Is there an attachment with the email? If so, don't open it.

Above all else, before your dh does anything drastic, just keep ringing until they answer and get this sorted out.

Seriously, ring them from the number on the website, they don't do emails.

HMRC royally fucked up my tax code this year (I'm in the same position as your DH from the sounds of things) and after asking them to change it back to my original one, they did (eventually!) so at least I know what tax I pay every month, and I pay any extra via my self assessment payments twice a year.

Well therhubard as she hasn't posted for over half an hour maybe she is on the phone, or maybe she will let her dh ring about his own tax return.

All tax demands are by regular post, not e-mail. Changes to tax coding are also by regular post. HMRC are very helpful IME if you give them a call (at the number on any correspondence, not the e-mail). Try not to panic.

I don't understand how DP seems to be the boss in that he can say "he will close his business making 40 people redundant" but is still doing his own tax return. Surely he is discussing with "the 'big' accountant who signs off the year's accounts" the most tax efficient ways of doing things and the big accountant is doing the corporate and individual tax returns.

I think taxpanicmum that this may perhaps serve to tell your dh to gets his affairs in order.

His accountant should be doing his tax returns and self assessment for him, using the information your dh gives to him.

He needs to have annual meetings with his accountant to check that everything is in order and that the affairs are being handled in the most tax efficient way possible.

Also, I doubt the HMRC will discuss her dh's tax returns with her but they may be able to advise whether the email is a scam or not, which sounds likely tbh.

And who said they never answer the phone? They most certainly do ime.

(long-time lurker butting in to reply on one of the few things I know about)

HMRC do inform employers by email when they have a tax code notice waiting for them on the the HMRC online system but the email itself doesn't contain the details. As his own 'employer' the OP's DH would have got the email advising of the new tax code.

As already mentioned though, only underpayments of under £3,000 are recovered through the tax code so a demand for £10,000 seems unlikely. It also wouldn't be over the next 10 months because the coding notice received would only apply to the current (13-14) tax year.

I've had exactly the same thing, albeit for a smaller amount, happen to me this year. Although everything was correct for last year and all payments were made when they should be the HMRC system assumes that all the 'extras' (dividend income, company car benefits etc) for the current year will be the same as for the previous year. As these would generate a tax liability they alter the current year's tax code so that the liability is collected, as far as possible, through the tax code.

I had a very similar reaction when I saw my own coding notice but a quick call to HMRC sorted it out straight away. There was no problem getting through to them either, although their voice recognition system didn't like my accent.

As an aside, if he's in a position to receive dividends from his business then he really needs a better accountant if he's paying anything through PAYE to start with.

Hi all

Just wants to say that unfortunately the email is genuine. They have not given details in the email of his breakdown but the overall 'figure' is apparently always given in this way, at least in DP's situation.

He has been on the SA line twice for over an hour each time so far but as yet no answer.

Am going to update this thread later when we may know more!

HMRC will not send letters like this by email. He would have been sent a calculation showing how it had arisen.

Seems odd to me. I would have deleted an e mail like that immediately on the basis that the HMRC would always write about such a large sum of money in order to keep a paper trail. Are you sure the phone number linked to the mail is genuine and not just people sounding very professional sat in a back room in a dodgy part of London?

Have a look at this

what is the sender's email address?

GranddadGrumps so presumably he can log onto the Gateway system (not through any email link) and check this out himself?

Would they not also send a letter?

I'm self employed. We never ever get communication by email. We do however get a lot of spam emails.

Ring them. Of course there is a point! IME they're surprisingly human ans efficient on the phone.

And get yourselves an accountant rather than trying to do tax returns yourself.

GranddadGrumps so presumably he can log onto the Gateway system (not through any email link) and check this out himself?

Yes, online.hmrc.gov.uk/home

Would they not also send a letter?

They send a letter to the taxpayer, rather than the employer, with a breakdown of why the code's changing. That takes a few days to arrive. I cant remember receiving a tax code notice addressed to the employer through the post for a long time.

And to reiterate what others are saying I've never seen any email from HMRC (whether Income Tax, Corporation Tax, VAT, PAYE or NI) which contains any financial details at all. They're always, very annoyingly, just an instruction to log in to the online service to read the notice.