You know what really grinds my gears? The Gears Strike Back

Non Air Cadets File 13
6828

The joy of liaising with HMRC.

A combination of issues - when I retired from flying, my company"s HR sent me the required P60 / P45 information - so the income / tax paid was specified accordingly on my Self-Assessment as per their inputs.

Ah, the final figures that the company filed with HR some 6 months afterwards at the end of the tax yr = different information. That generated an HMRC compliance check about 9 months afterwards = just had the final penalty notice.

The “Potential Lost Revenue” that they calculated was £3.8k; based on a “careless entry” to my Self-Assessment (which I had no knowledge about!) they allocated an associated penalty of 15% = about £570. Fortunately, due to my “openness & cooperation,” the penalty was suspended. That has taken from 06 Dec 2024 up to today resolve.

The important knock-on from that is that situation has required me to formally agree to set conditions related to the suspension which have, due to other tax circumstances after my main employment, have caused me considerable inconvenience & associated delays (still on-going) with recovering over-paid tax to HMRC.

In their wisdom, HMRC ignored my formal inputs about change of subsequent employment (UK CAA). There are 2 issues - firstly not apportioning the correct tax, & then not ceasing my employment. The first issue is being claimed by me under ESC A19
, with a letter sent in on 26 Jan. The guideline action date was 29 May - guess what? Nothing. My 3rd follow up call on the matter, today I only held for 35 mins before getting through, had worse!

Now, the 3rd issue links back to the penalty notice & having to promise to be a good boy with the accuracy of my tax details as part of the penalty notice suspension. Until HMRC sort themselves out with my ESC A129 claim, I’m in limbo - I can’t submit my Self-Assessment until this is resolved (could file incorrect information) which means that as HMRC also didn’t end my employment, I had to pay a significant sum “on account” with a further payment due on 31 Jul. Round & round in circles, can’t action one item without the other!

HMRC protocol is pay the demand, then reclaim it back. I’d love to claim it back, but seemingly can’t file my Self-Assessment until HMRC sorts out the ESC A19. (original target date of 29 May).

Sadly, everything is very much in their favour. As it is a public-sector operation, well, no share-holders (those who pay tax!) & no structure of managed timeframe of cases or ability to speed things up. I filed a complaint on 05 Jun after a previous (long) call but no response as yet, am I surprised?? Wish I could bill them for my time!

Just been told that my ESC A19 case is still unassigned, new target date of 24 Aug. :man_facepalming: :man_facepalming:

Whilst holding to coordinate a call back from a more experienced agent - cut-off. no callback from the original agent or anyone else - “yes, we have your number” - which I also had given to the agent just in case.

Says it all. :poop:

Another hr spent getting through / talking with another agent (Self Assessment). His advice (yes, I have his names - & those of the other agents) = file Self assessment with with as many amplifying notes as possible (ESC A19, etc). Wish me luck - was what is they got Al Capone on?? :wink:

I consider myself “eddookated” & able to handle my tax matters - but I wonder how others cope with HMRC & their dire performance??

6829

I have a 2 strikes rule with them, I tell them they are talking tosh and if they don’t then start playing the game they can get nicked and usually their car seized.

2 Likes
6830

Having to deal with HMRC on a regular basis I am not surprised in the slightest.

How much help you get depends on who you get on the end of the phone. In May I phoned the VAT specialist helpine only to be told I’d need to have a call back with a VAT specialist (isn’t that who I phoned?!) and the next available appointment was the end of June, I re-read the VAT guide on the subject, ran my take on it past someone else and went with it as needed an answer before the end of the next month. I then I thought I was the CIS helpline at one point as I had three sub-contractors who all work for two of my clients contact me as they couldn’t get any sense out of HMRC, including one who’d tried to register for CIS three times, with HMRC confirming they could see his applications but they’d not gone any further and was saying to resubmit.

Absolute shambles.

6831

Had a very helpful HMRC chappie in PAYE back in Jan when I was trying to resolve the wrong employment / tax situation. He gave me all the pointers where HMRC had made errors / not taken up provided information & suggested that I filed a claim under ESC A19.

1 Like
6832

The person you spoke to on the phone probably barely earns minimum wage and is just working to the guidance they have available. Having a deep understanding of any particular area of tax is very specialist and takes years to learn, hence the waiting list to talk them

1 Like
6833

I say give them what they want. You want the Common Law, have it.
Death penalty, no Human rights, even no Magna Carta. The full package of inequitable nonsense.

2 Likes
6834

I love it when you get someone like that, unfortunately they are few and far between.

I know it’s not the fault of the person on the end of the phone but when you phone the beer duty helpline and after 30mins on hold, get someone in vat whose covering the line due to short staffing it’s pretty frustrating :face_with_peeking_eye:

6835

I honestly just remember this being a click a few buttons exercise…

Though that was for a ltd if that might make any difference.

6836

Cough… theyre called accountants…

If they muck up, its all covered.

Plus. For simple affairs. Not actually that expensive.

Certainly cheaper than goodness knows how many hours youve spent chasing that lot!
Think of your time as billable… that insentivised me to pay less than £600 a year total.

6837

Never had a problem before in 25 yrs or more - sadly, it’s a combination of circumstances that have made my relatively simple tax affairs exceptionally problematic.

1 Like
6838

I’m pretty glad I don’t have to deal with any of this. PAYE for the win!

2 Likes
6839

As much as I agree.
I’ve lost count of how many times HMRC have cocked up my tax on PAYE and told me I’ve underpaid

6840

Sadly, HMRC failed to sort that out - despite me telling them & the PAYE department getting the relevant information from the employer. That had the knock-on effect for the following tax yr & payments on account. Yes, you can elect not to pay them, but risk the interest penalties if HMRC deem that they are correct. I know that they aren’t but it’s still an invidious position to be in due to their “sub-optimal” performance.

6841

It still is or at least should be a few clicks of a button process and then your UTR and CIS confirmation appear as if by magic through the post, but in this case, the UTR arrived but not the CIS confirmation, thinking it had got lost we tried verification which showed unmatched, higher deductions. Subby had the confirmation email to say application received, phoned HMRC told to apply again, which he did while on the phone to them, same thing happened again.
He did eventually manage to get a really helpful person who sorted it all out while on the phone

I’ve got a CIS registration to do tomorrow for a Ltd Co, fingers crossed a couple of clicks and job done.

6842

GMG: The London rental market.

Looking potentially to return to the capital and already knew rents were ridiculous, but saw some that seemed reasonably priced. Then realised that it was not just a house share, but a room share usually with 2 other people!

Hard no!

2 Likes
6843

I don’t know how so many people do it. I’ve got loads of mates who moved to London. But they’re all on 60k+. But even then, they are mostly house sharing, or have a partner also on that sort of money. None of them have very big spaces, or anything outdoors.

I’ve got two very good friends who live on a canal boat, they have a wide-beam, and I think they have as much space as some of my other mates living in flats!

6844

It’s basically not possible unless someone is on a big salary with plenty of cash for a deposit, has ‘private’ or family wealth, or have lived in London for a long time.

Even so called affordable housing is anything but.

And there are lots of unoccupied properties especially new build flats.

6845

Simple rule of economics, inflate the population with a finite resource, prices rise.

6846

HMRC - I had logged a formal complaint on 05 Jun - just had the “we are looking into your complaint” reply. :man_facepalming:

6847

Depending on the time you submitted it, is 10 working days that bad, it alludes that it’s actually being looked at rather than just a “we’ve got it”