have been told i am being investigated by tax office. Anyone have any knowledge of tax or can recommend a decent accountant?

[NewspiritsFromOldghosts]

Hi,

have been issued 9 different tax codes over the last 8 months or so. Each one claims i owe differing amounts or alternatively states they owe me money.
So, in other words my allowance has been up and down like a whores drawers.

For the most part my tax code has been really high, as in i am paying a lot of tax each month.
I have a fully expensed company car and am in the higher rate tax band anyway so i would expect a K code but according to my payroll even my directors don't have as big a tax code as me.

This morning i got two letters. One stated that i no longer have a company car and therefore my tax code was now fab.
The other one states i owe thousands and they will take it back in my tax code from April o9.

I called them today, they have now told me that i am subject to investigation and that in the meantime i will be on a mahousive tax code.
They are saying that i haven't paid any tax on the car for a period of 18 months between 2006 - 2008.
I actually did, and they took over 1700 pounds in one month as an underpayment on top of the usual tax.

I've worked out what my takehome will be and basically after i have paid half the mortgage and the childcare i am left with nothing. Literally.

So;

1. what does a tax investigation mean for me?
2. is there any independent body i can go to to help mediate/sort this out?
3. does anyone know a decent accountant?

No help on the accountant front. What being under investigation means is that they can go back through your personal records for 6 years, so I hope you have all your bank statements and pay slips for that period, and trawl through your records to see if you are evading tax.

Tbh - i don't think they know what they are doing at the moment. The info is fed into a computer and if you don't fit the parameters, god help you. Even if you can go through and show you have overpaid tax for years, and a Tax Officer agrees with you, it doesn't matter, because the line that is taken is that the computer is always right.

When you phoned, did you speak to the monkey or the organ grinder? I have had several dealings with the Revenue this year trying to get a bloody return sent to me, and querying various other things, and they are useless. If it is an involved query like yours, ask to speak to someone who is a technical expert and can answer the question (like an Inspector) and don't be put off with anything less. The people who answer the phones are NOT tax trained.

Alternatively, go to your tax office and get an inspector to come out and go through the paperwork with you and explain, with a year on year calculation, what the actual position is. Take all your returns and records since the problem has started and see if you can sort it out there. Otherwise, inform them that you will claim the accountants fee back from them.

For which year did you last file a tax return? Have you had a letter through informing you that this return is being investigated?

Hi,

I've never filed a tas return because i am PAYE.

They've told me today that i will receive written confirmation of the investigation and they will call me within three working days to let me know what stage we go to next.
The lady i spoke to said i will either have to pay a lump sum as well as the huge tax code or they can make an application to have me made bankrupt.
The thing is though, the amounts they are talking about are under 10k, also, if i'm on PAYE how on earth would such a large underpayment ever build up anyway?
I am convinced just from going through my P60's and old payslips that they actually owe me money.
It looks like i am being taxed twice!

Intersting info about it being a computer system, that could explain alot!

I think i am just going to have to try and force a face to face interview so that all the paperwork can be looked at properly.

Many thanks for your help.

My dh had this a few years ago. Sent him a number of demands all saying he owed various amounts. In the end they decided he owed nothing. I just love the fact that you're responsible for paying the correct amount or risk being fined.
For peace of mind I'd take everything you have into one of their advice offices and talk it through with them. Will help you decide what the best thing to do next is. Agree that the person on the phone may not be the best-suited one to reassure you.

We had this last year - bloody nightmare!

We sold a house they didn't realise we owned because it was inherited from DHs late first wife and they couldn't understand how he could have invested so much when he didn't seem to have that much coming in IYSWIM. The computer systems are tripped when there is a disparity of more than X % - we suspect it's about 30% variance.

Anyway, we have the bank do the tax for us and we just authorised them to talk direct to them and asked not to pay anything until they came up with a figure and they agreed but said we'd have to pay interest on anything owed back to when it should have been paid - yep no probs we said.

Nine months later we got a short letter to say they had found no discrepancy and had concluded their investigation - thank you for your cooperation etc.

DH says you just have to be very calm and provide them with all the info they need and they will sort it out, because the alternative is going nutso at them and then they really do decide to have a good long delve.

BTW I was on PAYE ten years ago and five years ago they wrote to say that the payroll dept had put me on the wrong tax band and so they wanted £10K. I paid it but was a very unhappy bunny for a long time.

I worked with someone who had this happen to she was also PAYE and the company tax accountants (usually the some company who deal with audits) sorted it out and the company paid the invoice for their work.

Lizziemum - THANKYOU! I hadn't thought of asking the company accountants, spoke to my director this morning, they are going to deal with it for me.

Thankyou everyone else, i am trying to remain calm but it's a bit difficult when i am being told that i owe thousands.
So frustrating, i have been really good with money for a while, i'm lucky enough to have a very well paid job that i love so to have to consider that i may go backwards financially is making me very RRRAAAGH!.