Tax Refund Dissappointment

[losgigs]

Following advice from the Martyn Lewis MSE website, I found out that as I am a non-taxpayer, my husband could claim my tax allowance (marriage tax allowance). We were looking forward to approx £200 refund for this year and last year. Sadly not. In today's post, a brown envelope with a letter saying he owed HMRC approx £400 due to THEIR miscalculations for last 2 years. Not happy! If this claimed had not been made, it's quite likely that their error would never have come to light.

[hc4361]

Oh, bad luck!

[Peter Pedant]

oo-er Mrs !
the tax man as piggy bank is not a wonderful idea

( altho it is welll established law that one does not need to pay more tax than is ( lawfully ) owed )

[rockyracoon]

They are utterly useless. Earlier in the year I got a coding notice which was correct, 2 jobs, one on full allowance and the other on nil rate. When checking payslips at the beginning of the financial year I found that they had given both jobs full tax allowance. Rang them, they said sorry and that they'd sort it. Two weeks later still the same. Another long winded phone call where I was told the first call hadn't been actioned properly. She could see I called, understood what was wrong and couldn't believe that her colleague hadn't made the correction. The tax bill next year would have been horrendous if I hadn't spotted the mistake. Completely their fault as well, I mean who decides to change a tax code for no reason?

[Islay]

No it would still have come to light as they have just finished doing all the end of year calculations.

How do you know it was their error - is hubby self employed?

[fiction-factory]

Did they say it was their miscalculation, losgigs?
If it's any consolation they would probably have realised anyway when they do their year end reconciliations around this time. And presumably the amount owed would have been greater if you hadn't applied for this allowance.

[losgigs]

No, Islay, he's retired! Get's a private pension as well as government one. He hasn't been sent a tax return form to fill in for a while. Surely it is their job to calculate what tax individuals pay?
Rocky - that is awful. Lucky you spotted the error.

[fiction-factory]

It does take time once the state pension comes into it as it is always paid gross and I am not sure they find out about this extra source of income until they see the P60s at year end. Maybe a tax code should have to be applied by the DWP when some draws their state pension (or gets JSA) just as is the case for other earnings/pensions

[fiction-factory]

I also think the obligation is on us to tell them of untaxed income rather than wait for a tax form. I have not had tax form for years now. It might have said about telling them of other income on his tax code notice regarding his company pension.

[jno]

back in the days where there were local tax offices where you could pay your tax, I gave them a fat cheque to cover mine. At the end I got a tax demand for it. Checkign my statements, it turned out they'e never even presented it. Must have lost it.

Of course, if I was Amazon, they woudn't even have asked.

[Islay]

HMRC relies on the pension companies to provide up to date information, unfortunately this hardly ever happens and it is not until the end of theyear that HMRC gets this information.

The responsibility is on the individual to ensure that HMRC has the most up to date information.