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?

😂 wow
yeah that’s not quite how it is

I had this today as well! It's awful isn't it.

Logged in and saw an overdue figure, which I really wasn't expecting. Panicked and paid the amount.

Then released it was too little to last years return, plus last years wouldn't be overdue yet. Assumed I must have missed a payment the previous year cos I was in maternity.

Dug around and found the calculation for last year. And paid that too.

Then went back and checked my history and I've never missed a payment so I'm 99% sure I've over paid by around £3k!

I did mine a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised at the amount it said I had to pay but luckily then saw it said it had not taken into account my "in advance" payments for that tax year. So I decided not to pay yet but to wait for their statement to arrive (they post it to me) in the next couple of weeks. That made much more sense as forward payments had been taken off the total and I could see more clearly what I actually owed.

I have three different amounts and not one idea of which I have to pay! 😂I use Go "Simple" Tax as well. 🙄

I used the chat function after the advice kindly given in the thread. Held on waiting for 3 minutes, spent 3 minutes with an advisor who authorised my rebate there and then, having waited 4 months.

Chat feels like a secret hack. Does it even say that you have to write 'adviser' to summon someone, I don't remember seeing it? I feel like I have tried to use it before but it just kept sending me off to different 'help' guides as I didn't know to use the magic work 'adviser'.

@GasPanic that worked, thank you very very much!

It doesn't tell you on chat to say advisor but I used to build chatbots so know some hacks!

I did my first self assessment tax return this year and it was not intuitive. My husbands old accountant has done them historically.

I've ended up paying the same as last year so I'm convinced I got it right somewhere.

The balances keep changing. But once I'd submitted it all, 72 hours later a request for the same amount is paid last year arrived.

This year I'm starting mine on April 6th. This gives me 8 months to figure out the system again.

I agree. HMRC hate accountants and have recently changed procedures to exclude accountants from being able to do certain things for their clients, so accountants have to literally "hand hold" clients to do things online. Accountants are generally simply no longer considered when HMRC change their website. HMRC definitely want people to do their own tax, and that means they can run roughshod over taxpayers, intimidate them, not own up to their errors etc. They hate the fact that accountants tend to know the law whereas HMRC like to work on what they think the law should be rather than what it actually is. Hence the number of mistakes on HMRC website which accountancy bodies have reported many times, but still remain uncorrected!

No worries.

I think that option should be highlighted in massive letters and on top of the list of options on the right because it immediately lets you know where you stand !

I only found it by accident ...

Oh. That's awful.

Experienced HMRC bods become tax advisors not the accountants who complete your SA for you.

Years ago HMRC use to do free face-to-face one off group tutorials on VAT. The person taking the course I went on not only covered VAT but gave and explained loads of information on self-assessment, company cars, and other aspects of tax. It was definitely tax advice.

I'm confused as hell about mine. I have 3x PAYE jobs, 1x self employed at which I earned £300 during the last tax year. They want £700 tax? They can get fucked, surely the most I'd owe is £60 = 20%?
I'm not a big earner by anyone's estimation, but coupled with my ADHD it's making me cry on the daily.

That's absolutely baffling. Unless they think maybe all your different jobs have pushed you into a higher tax band and each individual one has been underpaying your tax (e.g. you've gone just over £50k www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates)

It's probably that you have underpaid tax on your PAYE roles, so instead of writing to you post April and letting you know you owe tax it just gets sorted now.

Also you can claim trading allowance against that £300 to make it £0.

Totally agree with everything @Badbadbunny says.

HMRC are awful with accountants and will argue the toss with you over something you know is correct (I've had this very scenario with them this morning). That's if they will even speak to you, from 1st Jan they changed what they will speak to you over the phone about which was helpful... and not forgetting this is after we've sat on hold for as long as everyone else 'because covid' even though pre 2020 they managed to have enough staff manning the agent dedicated line that would mean we got through instantly every time.

I could go on and on

Worth trying Twitter

My DH turned 66 in September, thereby qualifying for his state pension.

In the year previous he had been working and drawing a final salary pension, we were as expected hammered for tax and quite rightly too.

The day after he retired, he called and said I no longer work for X company, but do have my state pension and final salary pension and no other income.

New tax code lands and it is eye watering.

We call them, despite spending the best part of an hour on the phone they failed to amend correctly.

We knew we would owe them money, he did his SA earlyish and paid what we were roughly expecting to pay.

Imagine our annoyance when an emergency tax code dropped, in the door last week, DH calls and they say oh yes we didn’t know you were drawing your state pension, 💁 Eh yeah you did, we told you in September, on emergency tax until April.😡😡

We have yet to have a standard monthly income since September.🤷‍♀️

Most bloody annoying, we are lucky enough to have savings to draw on to flatten each month out to what it should be, the whole thing is an exercise in incompetence at the taxpayers expense.😡😡😡😡😡

I find it quite good to be honest but my returns are super simple. Think the upgrade to seeing all returns plus pension contribution forcasts etc saves me a lot of phone calls.

HMRC don't hate accountants. They may not like what some accountants/advisers get up to on behalf of their clients but accountants keep the wheels turning to some extent.

Returns are made on trust. Yes, HMRC systems will flag certain things up but quite a high % of returns will be accepted on face value as there is not the capacity (and never has been) to check every single one of them.

As an aside, I deal with HMRC a lot and they are well dysfunctional. No department speaks to any other department and the IT won't allow cross referencing. May as well still be Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise to be honest.

Anyway, I've submitted returns and overall found the form fairly easy to navigate but can see the potential for things to get complicated very quickly. There is no easy way around this due to the tax codes being what they are.