To think the HMRC self assessment website is one of the worst designed websites ever?

[bluebeach]

It just seems like a mess. I’ve filed my return, now going back a few days later to pay and it says I owe one amount, then on another page I owe a slightly different amount that’s apparently late (despite me being up to date with payments), but overall I owe another amount, which isn’t the sum of the other two amounts. I want to see a proper breakdown and see what I need to pay now but it’s all such a maze and half the time the website is down. I’m more than happy to pay what I owe but every year I get the same frustration over a completely rubbish system. Is it just me?

Have you included the PAYE employment on your SA form?
And have you allowed 48hrs after submitting it to allow the system to process the calculations?

(starting a job with PAYE triggers nothing)

I avoided paying ANYTHING on account last May as I knew I was stopping self employment and going PAYE - which I did in May
Hang on...
You started PAYE in May 2022? - in which case you were entirely self-employed for tax year 2021-22. You'll have to make and adjustment on the SA return to modify the payment on account for 2022-23 to zero and put a note in the explanatory field. Then when you do your SA for 2022-23 you may have a small balancing payment for the two months of the tax year before you were PAYE.

I give you the National Rail website as a suggested worse one. Or unless it has changed (quite possible), Ryanair.

I don't self-flaggellate by using Ryanair so have not looked at their website for a while.

Yes, I was entirely self employed in 21/22 (and paid all the tax apart from the £158)

I don't have a new form to fill in until April now (which will have April from 22 in it)

Agree. It is a disgrace that it is allowed to continue. Owed tax back? Keep logging in and requesting a refund- for months. The same loop, confirming your bank details over and over again. Yet if it was the other way around… I use the website as an individual and as an employer. It is a slightly better experience than being given misinformation from HMRC by phone but the bar is very low.

Of course, the mistake we all make is not being wealthy enough. I read in the paper a couple of days ago (when reading about Nadhim Zahawi's 'carelessness'), that HMRC has a separate team/division that deal with the wealthy.

Wealth team

You are going to have to explain more about the £3500 is that the payments on account they want for 22/23? If so you need to submit a claim to reduce your Payments on account to zero and select the reason why.

It's not easy to find! It's almost like they don't want you to contact them...

Totally agree! The website is the least intuitive thing!! So overly complicated I hate it

It's all a mess. I fucked up the Higher Earner Child Benefit thing a few years ago, largely because HMRC specifically wrote to me to tell me to stop doing tax returns, as I was all PAYE. DH had been doing tax returns so I thought that covered it, or it was accounted for through my PAYE. They wrote to me in the pandemic claiming I owed them money. I paid it, but for a few months every time I checked the self assessment page I owed a bit more. No emails or other correspondence alerted me to this, and if I hadn't checked randomly I'd have missed several short deadlines. It just made me feel really sick and that they could just demand money any time and I'd have to pay.

So amend the payment on account on your 21/22 form.
Unless you've already submitted it without doing so.

That's right, I submitted it in April (not knowing I definitely had the job to start in May)

I thought I MIGHT get it so I asked to reduce payments on account for 22/23 by £3500 - which they did

They now want that money though obviously I don't owe it

If you submitted your 21/22 return in April and requested to reduce your 22/23 payments to nil which they did what has happened since for them to now request you pay 22/23 payments on account? Have you submitted an amended return?

Trust me, it’s definitely not to get you to use an accountant. HMRC would rather there were no accountants as it’s much easier to intimidate people and confuse them into paying too much without a knowledgable advocate.

Why would they want you to pay an accountant? 🙄

I didn't know I could submit an amended return I've not seen that form, just my completed return

Thanks all so much, I'm off to look for an amended return form

I got fined £100 this year for "not filing a return" in 2018 - a year before I was self employed and I have a full PAYE year evident.

Yes yes! Oh the reminders! And a patronising one asking if I needed help. Nope, it's just my money right now thanks!

Also, you might have until 31st to pay but when you pay, it tells you it can take five working days to reach your account. So you'll probably get fined if you pay on 31st!

Keep their accountant chums is business

Ahh hadn't thought of that angle

Thank you very much, I'll give that a try.

God, yes I couldn't agree more. Boots us possibly the worst website I've ever used.

It’s definitely much more clunky this year - I’m owed money and instead of just including my bank details on the return (that section is still on the form, you just can’t put the info in any more), I had to wait 72 hours and go through a whole load of identity checks. I did get a letter through the post within a few days confirming the refund amount.

My DF was a senior tax inspector (one of those ones that you used to be able to pop in and see - until he moved to head office to deal with the Zahawis of this world) and he was baffled as to why they did away with local offices and centralised everything. Having said that, when I called with a query this year the phone was answered reasonably quickly and the guy was very helpful.

This!