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Original poster

Tax Credits Compliance Letter sigh

32 replies

DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 20:23

Hi,
We've had a lovely letter from the Tax Credits Compliance people about our award for last year. They would like:
EVERYTHING
payslips, contracts and invoices from childminders, P60s, P45s, our bank account statements for the period from January through to April 2013. DH was out of work at the start of 2012 and then on a training course until the June of 2012 so his earnings are very very low. The list goes on and on and on
I feel really nervous. We haven't done anything dodgy at all. Kids were legitimately in childcare and we can supply with them with the information they want (except the child benefit references because I appear to have misplaced them). But, I don't want to send an envelope containing all my personal details in the post and I don't want to give them my bank account details because I frankly do not want to print out however many pages of internet banking for them.
Can I ask to deal with an actual person? Any experience? I really really hate the tax credits people and didn't want to claim the stuff in the first place. We aren't claiming for 2013-2014 and have already told them so.
Thanks,

OP posts:
Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 20:23

Should I seek legal advice? GAHHHHHH

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 02/12/2013 20:46

Were you claiming childcare costs when your dh was out of work or training?

Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 21:55

Hi!
Yes I was claiming childcare costs when my DH was out of work because otherwise we would have lost the places and we needed the childcare while he was in training as he could not have looked after the kids. They are not asking about when he was out of work though, they are asking about when he was in actual work.

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 02/12/2013 21:59

Oh I see. You need to be both working 16 hours or more to claim help with childcare, so let's hope they don't start looking furthur back. We suddenly got an overpayment letter for tax credits recieved 3 years !

Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 22:04

Great.

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 02/12/2013 22:06

If his earnings were very low during the period they are looking at then they may be just trying to establish that you were both working over 16 hours a week in order to qualify for the childcare element of the tax credits. If you have all the proof that you were then I wouldn't worry, it is just a check. I hear they are really checking childcare claims very carefully at the moment.

AnitaManeater · 02/12/2013 22:07

There is no facility to speak to a real person. There are HMRC enquiry centres but they are unable to deal with any tax credits enquiries unless it's an identity check.

Was the training unpaid and not in conjunction with an employment?

Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 22:30

He was on a new deal course which started on the 30th of April 2012 which took him off jobseekers and led to his present employment. This was declared at the time and his income from jobseekers declared on all the forms.

They want all our internet banking for 4 months in 2013? This strikes me as horribly invasive. Surely the fact that I send them all my payslips and then the childcare receipts should be enough?

OP posts:
Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 22:33

And why oh why can't they just cross check this themselves? The P11Ds, P60s etc are all from HMRC, why don't they cross check? Xmas Angry

OP posts:
lougle · 02/12/2013 22:57

Goodness..you may have quite an overpayment.

You weren't entitled to child care tax credits when your DH was out of work, regardless of whether you would lose the place.

4 months worth of internet banking isn't onerous. Especially if you can print from the screen. Just print it, send it in.

It's not hard.

Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 23:25

I don't think I have an overpayment.
We claimed for 17£ a week in childcare for 2 kids under 5 due to childcare vouchers.

OP posts:
Original poster
DingbatsFur · 02/12/2013 23:35

And DH's lack of employment is ok during this period because of the 30 hour element it seems, as although he was not working 16 hours for 4 weeks I was working 37.5 which is over 30 between us.

OP posts:
SoonToBeSix · 03/12/2013 11:02

You aren't allowed to claim
Tax credits for childcare and childcare vouchers from an employer it has to be one or the other.

Rockchick1984 · 03/12/2013 11:23

Dingbats you both need to work a minimum of 16 hours per week to claim for childcare costs, so this is definitely an overpayment unfortunately. If it's only £17 for 4 weeks I'd tell them about it, and explain you didn't realise this wasn't acceptable. Not worth the extra hassle of them finding out, definitely better to admit your mistake!

Soon if the OP was not claiming tax credits for the amount not covered by childcare vouchers that's fine, you can't claim twice for the same amount of money.

SoonToBeSix · 03/12/2013 11:23

Also you both have to working unless one of you is disabled, it wouldn't matter if you worked 60 hours if your dh isn't working they would assume he could look after the dc. Illogical obviously if he was on a training course.

SoonToBeSix · 03/12/2013 11:24

I see Rock thought you couldn't claim both. I will look into childcare vouchers myself then.

lougle · 03/12/2013 11:43

SoonToBeSix, just to clarify, you can claim vouchers up to £243 per month. Once you've claimed those, if you have remaining child care costs, you can claim tax credits for the remainder. What you can't do is claim tax credits and vouchers for the same childcare.

DingbatsFur I'm sorry, but whoever told you that was wrong. The rules for child care tax credits are that you are both in work for 16 hours or more, or one of you is qualified as 'incapacitated for work' which means either disabled or receiving carer's allowance, or in prison.

You have certainly been overpaid for that period.

The working tax credits were correctly continued, because you were in work for over 24 hours per week and you have children.

Rockchick1984 · 03/12/2013 11:48

Thanks Lougle you worded that far better than I did :)

SoonToBeSix · 03/12/2013 12:14

Thanks Lougle we pay more that £242 in a week so will look into it. I thought you got a better deal with tax credits as we get sixty something percent paid via tax credits and surely the percentage on a salary sacrifice would be a lot lower?

lougle · 03/12/2013 13:30

Yes, in general, if you are eligible for Childcare tax credits, then you are far better off claiming those.

But I think (do phone to check) that you can put child care vouchers towards the 40% that Tax Credits won't pay.

Original poster
DingbatsFur · 03/12/2013 13:45

Thanks Lougle, that is really helpful advice!
4 weeks out of one year is not so bad then. We were given just under 200£ for childcare costs and 2900 as child tax credit. Not sure how the child tax credit is impacted by the 16 hour rule?
Rang the HMRC today and got through to the guy doing the audit. He said it was perfectly random and should be reasonably straightforward. I have the majority of the information to hand, though am still wary of handing in the 4 months of bank statements from multiple bank accounts. They did advise me that I can hand them in, in person.
My childminder will send me a summary of what we have paid over the past year and the other one has agreed to make a statement that she looked after my kids and we paid so much.
We paid more than £486 in childcare a month (2 DC, one in nursery school, one in reception, childcare 3-4 days a week) during term time. They asked for a term time cost, so I said 17£ a week. With summer factored in, it was far more.

OP posts:
Original poster
DingbatsFur · 03/12/2013 13:48

By the way, I plugged the situation where my DH was not in work and I was working 40 hours and we had children in childcare into the tax credits calculator on the HMRC website and it still output that they would give us tax credits, so there must be another factor.

OP posts:
Original poster
DingbatsFur · 03/12/2013 13:49

and for that matter they knew he was out of work for some of that period of time because they knew he had income from Jobseeker's Allowance? I don't think this is all completely straightforward.
I hate tax credits.

OP posts:
Rockchick1984 · 03/12/2013 14:14

You still get tax credits while he's out of work due to you working more than 24 hours per week. What you weren't eligible for was the childcare element.

lougle · 03/12/2013 14:14

Well there are 3 elements with tax credits:

Child Tax Credits - get it regardless of whether you work or don't, as long as you have children.

Working Tax Credits - get it as long as you are working 24 hours or more between you per week (16 if lone parent or one person is otherwise incapacitated for work - strict definitions apply). One person must be working at least 16 hours per week.

Child care element of Working Tax Credits -both must be working 16 hours or more per week unless one is incapacitated for work.