Inland Revenue haven't acknowledge our reduction in tax bill. Can we just pay what we owe, not what they say we owe?

[meemar]

DH stopped being self employed in August 08. We drew up the accounts and filled out the form to reduce the payments on account from £2500 to £360.

This wasn't acknowledged and they sent a statement in December saying £2500 was due on 31st Jan.

So we filled in another reduce payments on account form (on paper this time) and sent it with a cover letter. This was on 10th December.

They still havent acknowledged it and when we look at DH's online account it still says £2500 due on 31st Jan.

What would happen if we just paid the £360 with a letter of explanation?

What do they say when you phone them to discuss it?

We haven't yet, i thought I'd give it a while what with Christmas break etc. I can't call because they'll only talk to DH and he has not had time yet.

Maybe that should be the first thing to do. I was hoping maybe we could avoid being on the phone for an hour being passed around 5 departments before getting our problem sorted!

Just pay the £360 and write them another letter. You could try ringing, but you only ever get call centre numpties for personal tax issues.

As long as the tax due is actually £360 or less then there will be no interest or penalty.

Get DH to ring them pronto. I have to say unlike BClass, i have always found that the IR are incredibly helpful on the phone - hope it hasn't changed. Worth a try at least. All sorts of issues that looked dreadful on paper sorted v quickly by phone.

Choosy, I am a tax consultant and (when not on mat leave) spend a lot of time on phone to HMRC, so I might have a rather more jaundiced view of them than most....

You obviously got a good one you spoke to them

We've had a mixture of experiences. They usually are as helpful as they can be but a phonecall to them has never been straightforward for us, which is why we were trying to avoid it if possible!

I'll get DH to get on to it by the end of the week and if it's not sorted we'll just pay the £360 and explain everything in a letter.

Thanks for your replies.

The trouble with paying the £360 without talking to them is that they will simply see that you haven't paid the balance they think you owe. Much better to talk to someone first if possible.

Slayer - the computer will see they haven't paid what HMRC think is due - do not think for a second an actual person will look at the case.

Slayer - the computer will see they haven't paid what HMRC think is due - do not think for a second an actual person will look at the case.