75ZT Community

As most of us will be aware, After the Tax office managed to botch up countless peoples Tax payments they are clawing it all back or paying back what they owe (supposedly)............

Mrs Carlpenn has just recieved such a notification from our beloved Tax Office. They claimed she owes them almost £1300 in unpaid Taxes from Tax year 2008 / 2009.

So, a quick call to our beloved Tax Office and unbelievably, to add incompetence to more incompetence, here is what happened:


Wifey: Hi, I am calling about my letter demanding £1300 in underpayed Tax.

Tax Off: Yes, what seems to be the problem?

Wifey: Well, How can I owe the Tax office that much money when I declared myself Bankrupt in 2008 / 2009 Tax Year and therefore would not have been paying Tax through that period?

Tax Off: Oh yes, I can see that, I have no idea why they (The department claiming Taxes back) didn't notice that. I also note that you paid Tax for several Months in 2008 / 2009 when you should not have been, so it would appear that you have overpayed.

Wifey: Yes that is correct, I expect that will be sorted out?

Tax Off: Yes, I will get that sorted for you right away. You should get confirmation within the next few weeks.

Now according to that, Mrs Carlpenn has several Months worh of Tax rebate due and nothing to pay to them. What is the betting we don't see a penny of that?

How this country continues to run with such abysmal incompetence is beyond me......

Moral of the story, if you do get an "underpayment" notice, I would strongly suggest contacting the Tax Office first before parting with more of your hard earned cash and make sure its wasn't a demand written by a Chimpanzee high on amphetimines.........

QUOTE: Now according to that, Mrs Carlpenn has several Months worh of Tax rebate due and nothing to pay to them. What is the betting we don't see a penny of that?

I don't doubt that you will get whatever the system says you are due, unless the refund is paid direct to your receiver.

Having said that, whilst I really do not want to stir things on this forum I have to say my initial reaction to the statement quoted above is to wonder how many of your creditors are likely to see a penny of what you owe them?

Running my own business and having lost out heavily on two occasions to customers who have been made bankrupt, hopefully you will see where I am coming from.

I don't fully get it myself TF, but from what I understood, the Official Reciever takes over your financial affairs and basically shares out your "Disposable Income" amongst all your creditors etc. Therefore, If I understood it, the Taxman cannot take money from you, he has to take it from your disposable income, So if you had £500 per month disposable then up to £250 of that would go to the OR and shared amongst the creditors etc. Meaning that the Official Reciever will "Tell" the Taxman how much is going to get. If that makes sense.

Tourerfogey wrote:QUOTE: Now according to that, Mrs Carlpenn has several Months worh of Tax rebate due and nothing to pay to them. What is the betting we don't see a penny of that?

I don't doubt that you will get whatever the system says you are due, unless the refund is paid direct to your receiver.

Having said that, whilst I really do not want to stir things on this forum I have to say my initial reaction to the statement quoted above is to wonder how many of your creditors are likely to see a penny of what you owe them?
Running my own business and having lost out heavily on two occasions to customers who have been made bankrupt, hopefully you will see where I am coming from.

Our creditors had 8 Years of being paid back and if they had not continually amassed interest and charges many of the Bills would have been paid some 4 years earlier. More importantly, if at the time we needed help from them, they had helped rather than just bang on charges and interest etc, we would never have had the need to go Bankrupt. 8 Years of virtual poverty from debts that where caused by my Wifes employer going Bankrupt and not paying her 2 months wages, took a serious toll. We did our best and paid those debts for 8 years. They had their money back, all that would have remained was the excessive amounts of charges and interest on a debt that already had interest on it etc

To give you an idea of the situation, the Bank alone charged us £3000 charges in 12 months yet at no time offered to assist. As I said we where put into this situation not through fault of our own, but by a Businessman who sadly knew the system and still runs his same company under a different name today, with the same house, Mercedes, Mitsibushi Shogun and Yacht........

I'm not having a dig at you - just pointing out that bankruptcy doesn't only affect those who are actually made bankrupt - not being paid in excess of £2K I was owed (that figure doesn't include any interest or charges) also has an impact.

Tourerfogey wrote:I'm not having a dig at you - just pointing out that bankruptcy doesn't only affect those who are actually made bankrupt -.

Exactly - And that was the whole reason we ended up in this situation, as said above my Wifes Employer who made himself Bankrupt only to be able to play the system whilst his employees where left out to dry Then to restart his business under a new name etc etc.

Anyhow, the whole point of this thread was to make people aware that they should check before paying any "Tax Underpayments" to the Tax office as clearly if they make a simpl mistake like the one they did with us, then there may be many people here who could be in teh same boat, ie Self Employed etc

QUOTE: Exactly - And that was the whole reason we ended up in this situation, as said above my Wifes Employer who made himself Bankrupt only to be able to play the system whilst his employees where left out to dry Then to restart his business under a new name etc etc.

Yep, that hurts, and is so wrong.

You still, if a cheque does come through to you direct have to contact the Receiver or whoever is handling your Bankruptcy case.
In all Bankruptcy cases the strange think is the Taxman has his money first even if it leaves nothing for the rest, then Banks and so on in a peculiar pecking order.

As stated, all demands should be thoroughly checked by yourself and/or accountants that submit your accounts etc.
Any demands made to the Bankrupt person should be forwarded to the receivers office dealing,
what can be strange if you don't declare some debts at time of declaration you will still be responsible for them that is what you sign in the small print etc.
Always make sure any creditors or expected creditors are stated at the time as you can't go back later and say add these,
but if you win the lottery or similar of course then that has to be declared and will magically disappear before you see it.

If anyone does fall into serious debt a trip to the Citizens Advice Bureau would be time well spent. They have an excellant record in having interest and charges frozen on accounts.

Just my two penny worth.

I used to worrk for HMRC.....Chimpanzees on Amphetamines? Way too kind a description....

QUOTE: I used to worrk for HMRC....

I have made a mental note of that in order to, should the situation arise, hold it against you in the future

Tourerfogey wrote:QUOTE: I used to worrk for HMRC....

I have made a mental note of that in order to, should the situation arise, hold it against you in the future

To have said that I used to 'work' for them would have been to contradict any and all available evidence as to what I spent my time doing whilst in their offices Basil...

I got a Cheque for £18 quid overpayment from them this week ??...

I owe £1600 back tax from 2007-2008, no job, no money, no property, just my 75, I wonder if they will write that off? (no not the 75).

I work for the NHS, hence my employer uses a computerised pay system that deducts the payments required under PAYE - I have no access to my gross pay, merely receive it after all deductions.

A couple of years ago I and a number of colleagues received letters stating that we may have underpaid tax. Many many months later I received a letter telling me that I had not underpaid.

How much did this all cost to investigate - and why did they not know I had paid the tax.

Paul

According to the news today the Government have lost in the Courts the right to be able to claim back benefit overpayments where the overpayment was made through no fault of the claimant. Unfortunately, the same doesn't seem to apply to HMRC when they don't deduct enough tax from your earnings . . .

Same old story TF,
Taxpayers will have to pay for that and Benefit claimants don't have to pay back the millions of pounds overpaid.
As you say if HMRC refunds to much Tax back to you they can reclaim it without it seems any recourse to you,
underpayments of course are a slightly different kettle of fish.