why can't i talk to hmrc about dh's tax but he can talk to them about child benefit?

[manechanger]

Can someone explain why I am not allowed to talk to hmrc about the tax on child benefit. CB is paid into my account in my name but dh is being taxed on it for apr 14. They wont speak to me about it but will speak to him. Surely it's my data which is not being protected? I understand that his would then be breached but I don't understand why it's not considered a breach for them to discuss a benefit which is in my name. Why aren't we considered a partnership when this is about household income?

Also I need some advice. DH has earned around the £50k mark, so the year before he did his first tax return and didn't owe any tax (he's paid paye). Just done his tax return this year and he earned a bit more and now owes £1000 which is a bit of a shock. He was made redundant mid december and now has now income, not sure how long it will take to get a job so we need to conserve his redundancy money. I earn about £300 per month and our minimum we need is about £1500 as long as no one needs anything other than food, light, heat and roof. It lookes like we need to pay the money by end of january. Looking on tax aid we can set up a payment plan which would buy us some time.

How do we go about setting up a payment plan? Do you think CAB would help? Also how do we deal with NI paments? last time he was out of work we signed up as self employed but then it turned out that was only for 3 weeks we ended up with legal letters demanding 300ish and paid it because we couldn't get get off the system. TBH I think he might be getting depressed as nothng has come up yet and now an extra bill we hadn't realised would be so much is the last thing we need.

Phone them with him there and get them to make a note of your authority to handle all matters on his behalf.
remind them that you will be logging the time and date of the call so that their recordings will be the proof of authority.

It works.

Now this £1000 tax bill - did he get a redundancy payment over the £30,000 limit? Was that in 2013/14 or 2014/15

and the child benefit : sounds like something has gone into the return incorrectly.

You are cutting it really fine - the tax year ended 9 months ago and the deadline is soon
BUT
do you have a tame accountant who could check and resubmit the return?

we don't have an accountant. The bill is because we get just over 3k in child benefit and last year's earnings were 53k i was thinking it would be less, Like 3/10ths which seemed less than 1 k in my expectations but since Ive thought about it 3/10ths is about 1k so I think it's right.

I didn't realise I could get authority. It would be quicker. his redundancy was nowhere near needing to be taxed and was 12 december 2014.

Thanks for reply. Helpful to know I can get authority.

OK
so the redundancy money is nowt to do with it

you need to check all of the numbers against one of the online calculators on the HMRC site as something does not ring true on a salary of only 53k
www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-calculator/main

You are so right. Thanks very much for the calculator, I had totally forgotten that it was against a salary net of pension contributions. According to the calculator you linked to we owe nothing on child benefit. He has already put his tax return in and I didn't check it for him as he only had the one income so it seemed straightforward, he says he took the figure they needed from his P60 but the p60 makes no reference to pension contribution.

Of course I can't find the last payslip up to end of financial year 2014 but I can find the one for period 11 of 13 so I took the pension contributions divided them by 11 and multiplied by 13 which takes us well below the 5k cut off.

I think the answer is to call them first thing monday and talk to them about the amounts he submitted - after he has got them to give me authority. We spent 5 hours today doing my first one and his second one and on the phone for a total of 1.5 hours and we still managed to get this wrong...feel really stupid now.

Thanks again, that's really taken the stress off although he has been out of work before, it was before the crash and there was always temp work. because of the time of year we have no idea what to expect this time round so we need the buffer.

doh, 50k cut off

Hiya
DO NOT CALL THEM
Your life is not worth that much pain.

Log back into the system and file an amended return - perfectly allowed, there is even a box to tick to say you are amending.

I'm away for the week but if you get really stuck, ask for help here
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/accounts-finance.55/
I have the same name on all of the discussion boards
as they are wonderfully helpful and knowledgeable people - and there 24/7 nearly!

I know. We spent an hour on the phone to them - just waiting in the queue - yesterday and the person who answered could only answer 2 out of 5 simplish questions. In the end my dad answered the questions for me - and we had to have a call back as the system went down.

Amended return it is then. Thanks very much.

I think we are ok now but thanks again for the link to the other forum.

I suspect you have gone but 53k is the correct figure from P60 and the pension i was deducting when I used the calculator seems to have been pre tax pension so I think we do owe £1k tax. I know this is what we owe and all that but it's a bit of a kick in the teeth to have to pay it now that we effectively have no income. I am forced to phone them to double check and have sat here for 30 mins so far on the phone as the amendment doesn't seem as simple as I thought it woudl be....I am feeling particularly incompetent at the moment. Tonight I have the joy of my tax return which is much more complex...

Hmm. I'd say get your accountant to look at your DH's return
If you do not have an accountant I'd say get one :-)

ah i thought you were away so was just sending that message out into the ether in frustration. Ive spoken to the tax people and it's right. we have four kids so get over 3k in child benefit then his salary gross must have been about 58k inc bonus (which is an alien concept to public sector worker - ex like me). Once pension is taken off it's 53k so we owe them a third of the CB back, it makes sense to me as 53 of taxable pay is 1/3 of the way between 50 and 60k (where you don't get anything).

Anyway I have now amended to include gift aid payments which takes a bit off and have been advised to talk to their payment people and should hopefully be able to organise a stepped payment which is a bit of a relief. My tax return is much more complex but at least it's mine and I have a handle on my money but I'm now immersed in that. I think they owe me but only about 20p.

I have never ever employed anyone let alone an accountant, I can't see why a person on PAYE with the simplest possible tax situation (no savings or dividends) could get anything out of employing an accountant but if you really think the above situation sounds wrong then I'm happy to give it a go.

Thanks for all your help

DH always ends up owing tax but they just change his tax code for the next year to take the payments. He does this online, at the end of his tax return. Is it possible for you to do this?

Thanks, I'm not sure if that's an option since he isn't now working. the tax woman gave me a number to call and said to leave it to monday so the amendments to include gift aid are included. I hope the number I call will tell me all about whether it can be done on a code or just as direct debits. I'll remember to ask about putting it on a code which would help defer it.

I am away ... Listening to bad Jazz in Berlin ...
Accountants make 2 + 2 = between 3 and 5 after all