oh shit, dp has just had a HUGE tax bill :-(

[anyusernamesleft]

Dont really know why I am posting this, suppose I am hoping for a bit of moral support. dp has been acting very strange for the last few months, almost like he's depressed, irritable, grumpy, can't be bothered doing anything, no interest in me whatsoever and putting minimal effort in with the children. I've just put it down to him not having much work on at the moment (he's a contractor)
This morning he got a few letters, (he asked me to open them because he is waiting for some information about a job) one of them is a tax bill for £37k . I had no idea about this, Dp has not mentioned anything about but I am assuming he knew because it looks like this is the letter about the findings of an ongoing investigation into a company he worked for that have been avoiding tax for quite a number of years. I have no idea how we are going to pay this and if he was even going to tell me about it. I haven't spoken to him yet and am not even sure what to say. suppose it explains his moodiness recently. What the hell are we supposed to do now???

Oh dear.

I suggest your dh contacts the inland revenue to come up with a plan to pay this off over time if he hasn't got the cash now.

But if this is from a company he worked for, how was he paid? And why wasn't tax deducted at source? And why is he liable?

First thing - don't panic!

DH and i were hit with a massive fine & interest due to an accounting error by our previous accountant (£20k +) and there was just no way on earth that we could pay it all up front.

Our new accountant phoned our local tax office, explained our situation (we were between houses with 2 mortgages and 2 small DC) and negotiated a payment schedule that was realistic for us.

The tax office will be reasonable if your DH hasn't been at fault himself.

Is he in the CIS system? If so he will have payslips. Did he do contract work for the company, or was he involved in the company?

thanks for the fast responses. He did a long term contract (3 years) through them and they were supposed to sort everything out tax and ni wise. I am sure he will have kept wage slips etc but from this letter it looks like it has been looked into thoroughly.
At the moment he is only doing odd bits of work and I am a SAHM so things are tight already (just about manageable because of some money we had left from a house we sold a few years ago) and I am due to go back to work in September when ds starts school.
I feel awful, swaying from being upset to scared to angry about the money and why he didn't feel able to tell me about it.
Is it likely that they will let him pay in installments?

Yes, of course they will. Just keep talking to HMRC.
But he should have kept his payslips. They should prove that the company took the tax at source. I'm not really up on this but if he can prove the company took the tax and didn't pass it on then he may have some comeback re the bill. I don't want to build your hopes up so don't take it as gospel, but I'm sure I've come across that before. I did work for HMRC but never dealt with CIS collections.

I would advise getting advice from a specialist solicitor and/or accountant if the company has screwed him.

Mrs is correct, but I'm assuming the company isn't playing ball, so you may not get anything from them - yes, he should have his p60's and p45 though.

It sounds like they have paid him as if he was a self employed contractor, while he regarded himself as an employee on PAYE. So he didn't pay tax for those three years. Did he invoice them and receive payment of invoices or did he receive payslips?

Don't panic. Get him to ring and speak to an actual human being. I was sent a bill for over £50K because a previous accountant hadn't submitted my returns for 2 years. The person I spoke to admitted that they sometimes send bills with outrageous numbers just to 'flush people out'. We got it all sorted and I didn't have to pay it.
The worst thing he can do is not tackle the problem. We've had all sorts of difficulties paying tax bills over the years and it's always been OK because we stayed in touch with the tax man and didn't hide!

If he was a contract worker then he would have been responsible for paying his taxes and not the company. I suspect he is disappointed with himself for not taking greater care of his own bookkeeping and that's why he finds is hard to share it with you. As others have suggested he should be able to spread the payment.

if he was cis and can prove that he was paid after deductions then its not his problem
if he cannot prove that
or was paid gross he has rather a problem

I'd suggest going over to the UKBF
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/accounts-finance.55/
and getting some of the experts there to help