Seriously Now About The Tax Man.

[Jeza]

In Feb I got a bill for underpaid tax. We both pay through the PAYE system, they know our income and set our tax code. I told them this back in Feb and also asked them why they were chasing the little people when much bigger fish were both evading/avoiding their tax's. I did pay up as I will with Mic's bill. It seems unjust to me that if you are wealthy you can get away with out paying but if the are the little man they threaten court action because of their mistake.

[Maydup]

What type of organisation collects your tax through PAYE Jeza?

I can't understand why you would have an underpayment if its collected properly for you. Can you take it up with the PAYE process rather than pay the bill?

[Slapshot]

It's because we are small fish without fancy tax lawyers that we get hammered.

Mrs Slapshot has a real OCD thing about her tax returns, she's self employed never turned over more than £20K and some years her only tax payments were a recovery of gift aid but she refuses to be flexible because as she says she would be the one they inspect not Starbucks or Amazon....rubbish isn't it one big negative of the tories in power protecting their chums in the city , mind you I suspect Labour were as bad!!

[Arksided]

Pitchforks and torches.... on stand by.

[Canary42]

The little man can't afford to grease the appropriate tax officials' palms.

[Jeza]

Maydup. I retired early back in June 07 and received a company pension. I did not claim any benefit what so ever. In April 2011 the state pension kicked in. Tax was then taken from my company pension. I then got the letter in Feb of this year to say I had underpaid.

[factor-fiction]

The state pension, like any other income, is taxable but tax is never deducted at source from state pensions, so the tax is collected via an adjustment to the codes for your private pensions - but in the first year the HMRC may not be aware that your code needs to be adjusted to allow for your state pension so they have to request the amount due. It should all be sorted for this tax year- the correct code should be in place

[factor-fiction]

I suppose it is Chatterbank.

[Jeza]

That makes sense Factor, well kind of.

[lady-janine]

check very carefully. I get a couple of pensions and every year they say I owe money but it usually ends that they have to give me a reimbursement. good luck.

[Peter Pedant]

Jeza - not having much luck this week I am afraid

This has been in the news - zillions of people have either over paid or underpaid. I think the know-all tax man has said three or six hundred average.

I think you have to pay up honestly - at least none of the hacks I have read are suggesting that once things are settled - then they are settled.

[anneasquith]

only 3 things in life we can be assured of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,birth, death, and taxes.

[Caran]

Because I used to work in salaries I understood about tax codes so when the tax office got my codes incorrect I told them what to do. I have 6 pensions altogether so I allocated my allowances against each one so everything was correct. It meant I pay Basic rate tax on my 4 small pensions and use the balance on my main company pension and the tax is collected on my state pension on main company pension. Why they couldn't sort it themselves I dread to think.

[Greedyfly]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. Wrong taxcode = underpayment of over £1000. Following year I over paid and needed a blooming rebate - makes no sense, when I argued this was an employer error and not personal they will and rightly so, tell you you are responsible for checking your tax code is correct.

S o every year now I check with them it is correct

[boxtops]

jeza, I'm in the same situation as you, in that my company pension bears all the tax so that the state pension's not affected.

I've always found them fine to deal with. However - I rang them up once all my P60s had come in, and the error this time is in my favour - they've just sent me a cheque because they overestimated how much I'd be earning from employment during last financial year. Most welcome, it'll pay the vet bills!