I am so sick of HMRC being on my case.

[OfMe]

Every bloody year without fail I get a letter saying I owe them for late SA tax submission from a few years previously - I swear that each year it changes the year, the amount I owe them ( both up and down) - I'm a bloody music teacher who earns less than £2000 per year. The year they're asking for this year is 2015-16, where I shut down the business and worked full time in an office for a year and paid PAYE. I just despair - it actually makes me suicidal to open their bloody letters and think 'now how many hundreds of pounds do you want from me this time'. I feel like telling them to go and shake out amazon and google's pockets, because there's bloody nothing in mine! Sorry, just ranting, and I know, I just need to appeal to them in writing, but I just want to give up working all together because the whole bloody thing is pointless. I earn fuck all, it's more of a pain in the arse to have it than not, but without it I wouldn't get Carers or CTC. Grrr - sorry, just very very stabby today.

Once you've started, you have to do a SA return each year even if you won't owe anything.why let the debt build up??

You still need to complete one unless you’ve informed them that you’ve ceased self employment.

They cannot fine you more than you owe
(they think they can but they always end up backing down)

Get all of your returns filed and all of your tax affairs up to date.

Then write in and appeal the penalties.

The rules are clear. Play by them and get it sorted

I did this one, including the ever increasing amount owed. Eventually it must have been around your level when I phoned them and explained I wasnt eligible that year and apologised. They sent me a form to sign and it was sorted. Because of that I had also paid incorrect national insurance on my paye so I actually got a bit of money back.

I had this problem for years after I informed them I was no longer self-employed. I sent them everything they asked for and they assured me that was the end of it. Then I got a request the following year. I rang and was assured they had sorted it out. Radio silence for a while (several years) and then a couple of years ago I got a letter saying they were going to send the debt collectors for £1300 of unpaid tax. I nearly shit myself, as you can imagine! I wrote them a strongly worded letter quoting the date of my phone call and the date of the letter I had sent them (keeping a 5 year diary pays off!) and told them I was considering legal action because of the distress that their persistent demands were causing me, especially after doing everything that they wanted and contacting them and being told it was sorted.

A few days later, I got an apologetic reply and a bill that informed me that I was due them nothing and was no longer self employed. I have heard nothing from them since, except a small tax rebate last September.

I think you have to do SA any year they tell you or any year you earn over 1,000 from self employment. I just had to start last year and found it all very difficult but if you let them know you are struggling they have a special team to help. I kept getting back years too when I was in PAYE but that did get sorted once I messaged them though took about 10 messages before finally got someone helpful who sorted it and I got allocated to the special team.

They are shits. I used to claim tax credits and I was extremely vigilant about reporting any changes in my earnings and childcare costs as they happened. Every year without fail I'd get letters demanding money for overpayments. The latest one says I owe them over a thousand pounds.

They're absolute cunts. I have got no issue whatsoever with taxes, happy to pay them - but the way they treat people is abhorrent and their internal systems and beaureacracy are an utter mess.

Did you ask to be taken out of the SA system? You need to complete a tax return if one has been issued regardless of doing PAYE work.