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.

It would be an odd scam if it just meant that the employer deducted too much tax and sent it to HMRC! Where would the pay-off be? I suspect the OP might have misunderstood what her DP told her.

It sounds to me like there may well be some sort of unexpected tax liability caused by the company's 'accountant' (for which I read in-house bookkeeper) telling the OP's DP that the tax had been paid on the dividend he received, without mentioning that as a higher rate tax payer he would be liable for a further 25% tax on the dividend.

Or it could just be that he's put the dividend payment in the wrong box on his SA form, creating a tax liability where there isn't one.

OP please tell us: did the email contain an attachment you had to open?

Did you ring the number on the email or the hmrc website?

I'm seconding those querying how even a genuine email could possibly be saying that £1000 a month will be clawed back via tax code. I've just done my first tax return and read various notes, including one saying that there's a maximum that can be taken out of your tax code.

The only emails I've had from HMRC are about webinars for 1st time tax return-ers and about my login details for the online system.

How did you get on OP?

I worked for HMRC for 34 years.

Is your DH sure he filled in the Return properly? One of the most common omissions I dealt with was not putting in the amount of tax deducted via PAYE. So in effect the person was telling us that they had earned,say, 40k but no tax had been deducted from it.....
(One was a senior lecturer in Mathematics in a University, and he did the same mistake every year for 3 years, accruing a massive debt which he just ignored).

Any update OP?

There won't be an update because we have not told the Op what they want to hear and they are not listening.
£10K will not be coded out
PAYE coding notifications come throught the government gateway system and not via 'normal' emails - you have to log into your government gateway to access them
it truly does sound as though the company have a crap accountant and a not very good 'in house book-keeper' they can't be qualified accountants in house if they are using the paye sustem for the husband/director as described, if they are they are useless.
OP - DO NOT ring any number ot make any contact to the telephone number on the e mail.
Go directly to your 'big accountant' and let them sort it all out, this is what they are paid to do.
I am a former accountant and my husband has a small limited company with some employees and I have NEVER come across a director filling in hos own tax returns !

HMRC do emaill now particularly if you use the gateway. It takes a while to get through on the phone though. They are usually helpful when you do. I'd work out exactly what he's earned and paid them and phone up to compare with what they have on the system.

We've had a few letters stating large amounts dh owes, both tsx and ni. After several letters back both times the amounts owed have been greatly reduced.

I'm thinking that this has opened a can of worms between the OP and her husband...
His financials sound a total disaster.

It is madness to take a 50k salary; much more tax efficient to take a small salary plus dividend. If you have children it is also crazy to pay yourself an amount just slightly over the higher rate tax bracket, because you then forfeit your child benefit.

Our accountant does our personal tax returns along with our company tax return. I don't think it is very difficult to fill in but every single year HMRC takes the information on our tax return and manages to come up with the wrong tax code. It is certainly worth a couple of hundred quid to delegate our accountant to wrangle a bit of sense out of them.

Any uodate

MrsGrasshead
HMRC do emaill now particularly if you use the gateway
Yes, but the email says "check the gateway" not "you owe £x amount"

I'm sure it's a scam, OP. HMRC don't email, they write, in my experience (gulp!) You mention a company accountant - surely he or she is the person to look into this IF in fact you owe money. But don't take any notice of the email and do persevere trying to call HMRC, along with writing as soon as possible.

Be careful Op, Dh submitted his first self-assessment to pay back CB this year. We immediately could see the amount that they said we would have to pay back through a tax code adjustment next year. It was about £30 a month I think from next April. However, we have since received a couple of emails from 'HMRC' telling us that we are due a rebate and all we have to do is click on the link and enter our bank account details to receive the money. Obviously we did no such thing, as it was clearly not genuine. Definitely a scam

HMRC do actually email to acknowledge receipt of SA sent via gateway, but they didn't email me anything with amounts owed or anything like that.

Is DP a company director? Tax / NI arrangements can be slightly different if that's the case. My OH (also a director) pays an accountant to do his tax return, it costs about £300 but it's well worth it - I reckon they save us waaaaay more than that every year.