My mum has just had a letter saying she owes nearly 2k tax.

[VivaLeBeaver]

She's had a tax demand for underpaid tax. She's a pensioner on about 11k a year pension, hasn't worked in 4 or 5 years.

It sounds like they have her old employer an incorrect tax code so they weren't deducting enough at source. She's writing them a letter saying she can't afford to repay it and she thinks its unfair that they're chasing it when its their fault. What are the chances of her not having to pay it?

It would be a good idea for her to speak to CAB and see what advice they give.

It doesn't sound fair at all, especially if it's from that long ago.

Has she kept her tax coding advice notifications from when she was working? Did her employer (she can contact them) get tax coding change notifications? Any pay-slips or an end of year P60 showing the tax code? If she has any of these things she can argue that she believed the tax coding she was given at the time was correct.

Be warned, however. HMRC are very difficult to argue against.

Yes, thankfully she has all her P60S, tax coding letters, etc. I've always laughed at people who keep all this stuff, she has it going back 20 years. I'd be stuffed if it was me.

I think her old company have gone bust.

She's a very sensible person to keep all of those thins. She should write to HMRC, including photocopies of the tax coding notifications and P60s relating to the period that is in question. My colleague was given a too-low coding a few years ago, did exactly this, and managed to argue successfully that she had always paid the tax requested in good faith that the tax code was correct. It still took quite a long time to resolve but she didn't have to pay the back tax. Good luck

Thanks, will tell her that there is hope. She's very upset. has just divorced my dad and spent all her savings buying herself a bungalow.