HMRC letters

[SandyD]

Not really sure what's going on with the HMRC the last few months, I have been having these letters which threatened I miss one kind of payment or another, and charge me interest without any prior warning that they changed the terms.... firstly they tell me I missed my PAYE and charged me interest, I paid it on the phone immediately then went to my accountant gave him a dress down for not informing me of deadline changes, the accountant investigated and it seems HMRC changed me from annual to quarterly PAYE without telling anyone, then when the payment is missed they just charged me interest for it, I called them again and told them why was I changed to quarterly, they said this is the norm now, no one is on annual PAYE anymore... but why didn't they inform me or the accountant of this??

Also they had quite a bit of money held on my personal - self assessment account, I was never informed or sent a statement that they held £4500 extra of my money, then whenever I call they pretend they don't have it, I have to send evidence of their own letters to prove it.

Again a few days ago they send me red missed tax payment (self assessment) I think WTH?? I deliberately called them before paying my tax and confirmed the amount submitted and payment, and paid it... well it seems they decided to put me on high risk of not being able to pay next year's tax, even though I have never ever missed my tax payments, in addition they had £4500 of my personal money held in their account, why am I a high risk of not paying? I did have to pay higher tax this year because I had issues with home flooding and had to withdraw more money than usual from my company... but it seems they think I wont be able to pay my tax and demanded 50% of my next year's tax bill (based on this year unusually higher tax bill) in advance... however as usual, they never told me this, they never told my accountant... they just sent me a red letter I missed payment and charged me interest on it !!

My accountant is trying to sort the predicted tax on account they demand in advance, and I need to appeal against all the extra interest charges, but really, no idea what's happening with them... anyone else getting these random letters?

[DotasScandal]

They are pressured from above (by their political masters) to squeeze every single penny out of the "customers" - that's what's happening.
I suspect the Treasury's broke. Like, end of the line broke.
In these situations, all restraint on the part of the Revenue goes out the window.

[Patrick@Intouch]

Hello,

It is quite usual for employers to make payments for PAYE to HMRC on a quarterly basis but if you had historically been paying on an annual basis then either you or your accountant should have been informed.

With relation to the personal tax situation. I would recommend firstly registering for a government gateway account so that you can sign into your personal tax account and monitor this yourself.

If your balancing payment for the 2015/16 tax year exceeded £1,000 then HMRC will always demand payments on account be made toward your 2016/17 liability.

This is not them assessing that you are unable to meet your tax liabilities and is a standard requirement.

These payments on account are payable as 50% of the preceding years liability with the balancing payment by 31 January and a further 50% by 31 July.

These payments on account can be reduced if your income for the current year is likely to be significantly lower than in the year most recently assessed and should be by reference to your actual / predicted income.

The issue on payments on account really should have been advised to you by your accountant and if you do have a credit balance of £4,500 with HMRC then you should be reclaiming that instead of paying additional taxes.

[LondonManc]

They are pressured from above (by their political masters) to squeeze every single penny out of the "customers" - that's what's happening.
I suspect the Treasury's broke. Like, end of the line broke.
In these situations, all restraint on the part of the Revenue goes out the window.

Just think of all the contractor day rates they'll save in April.

[b r]

We got a load of letters about RTI, as we'd paid salary as a lump sum at year-end (good year) and then a quarter later got a large demand - they assumed we'd be paying that every month...

Just left it with the Accountants, that's what we pay for.

[SandyD]

Hello,

It is quite usual for employers to make payments for PAYE to HMRC on a quarterly basis but if you had historically been paying on an annual basis then either you or your accountant should have been informed.

With relation to the personal tax situation. I would recommend firstly registering for a government gateway account so that you can sign into your personal tax account and monitor this yourself.

If your balancing payment for the 2015/16 tax year exceeded £1,000 then HMRC will always demand payments on account be made toward your 2016/17 liability.

This is not them assessing that you are unable to meet your tax liabilities and is a standard requirement.

These payments on account are payable as 50% of the preceding years liability with the balancing payment by 31 January and a further 50% by 31 July.

These payments on account can be reduced if your income for the current year is likely to be significantly lower than in the year most recently assessed and should be by reference to your actual / predicted income.

The issue on payments on account really should have been advised to you by your accountant and if you do have a credit balance of £4,500 with HMRC then you should be reclaiming that instead of paying additional taxes.

Thanks, I have the gateway but don't specifically monitor or log in regularly, perhaps once or twice a year.

My balancing self assessment payment has always exceeded £1000... so what's different this year?

What I was told is that if I reduce that on account payment based on predicted tax for 2016/2017 then later I end up having to withdraw further money from the company due to any emergency, so the actual tax exceeded my prediction, then I will be fined !! so in a way I don't mind paying on account, however if for whatever reason my tax exceeded what I predicted my tax would be the fine would be applied, and I think the fine is not a small amount !!
Is this true?

[Patrick@Intouch]

Without knowing the specifics of your yearly income and tax, it would be difficult to say why this year was any different. You mentioned in your post that you had, had to draw additional income during 2015/16 and so the assumption was that your balancing payment was affected to the point of raising payments on account.

If you do reduce the payments on account and then end up with a higher tax liability than is covered by those reduced POA's then HMRC will charge backdated interest and make look to impose penalties.

Given the change in tax regime with regards to dividends during 2016/17 it may be worth "sitting tight" and making the payments on account.

You can always reclaim any over payment once your 2016/17 SATR has been completed and filed.