The taxman

[Redd]

It's 2013, we claim child allowance because my salary is less than the cut-off limit. However, a surprisingly good bonus payment pushed it over the limit in Feb 2014, so apparently I needed to fill out a tax self-assessment for that year.

Now at work I'm super organised but the second I step out the door that's completely gone and my admin is shocking (MOT, VED, cancelling unused services, insurance, etc). So partly in denial, avoiding admin, and half a belief that since PAYE deals with all my other tax/NI, that it would all just sort itself out, I never quite got around to it. A couple of times I sat down to do it online to realise that activating your online account has to wait until they send out a code by snail mail. So it didn't get done - totally accept that this is my fault

Probably shouldn't have ignored the warning letter (I'm sure I missed some mail because it seemed to escalate very quickly to the fine), but paid the late fine online and assumed that was the end of it - naive/deluding myself, I know.

Got back from holiday to find a letter telling me that they had penalised me another £300 and had been adding £10 a day for the last month, and the current penalty is over £600 !! !!

Funnily enough, this spurred me on to activating the account and filling out my self assessment online. There's an evening of anger and swearing at a computer that I'm never getting back. Upshot is that I owe them about £1700...and the ever increasing penalty.

Now if I were Vodafone, I'd call them up for a chat and tell them I'll pay 'some' of the tax and they get shove their penalty up their arse, but I'm not. I'm not 'happy' paying it, but by the flawed rule I owe it and I don't actually begrudge doing it that much. The penalty feels like a kick in the nuts though and I'm really not keen at all to pay that.

Yesterday after a call (38 minutes on hold, 2 minutes talking) to check that my understanding was correct, the call centre guy said that I should appeal it as they very rarely challenge them if the excuse is reasonable. So...I'm interested in suggestions on convincing grounds for not filling out my tax self assessment on time that will require no evidence to be manufactured No doubt there will be moral judgement too


tl;dr;

Help me with ideas for a convincing excuse to appeal tax penalties.
____________________
Professional Uberslacker
2006 Kawasaki Z1000 - Black at the front, airbrushed fade to red at the back.
1998 Kawasaki KDX 200 Enduro project bike

[BrownTrousers]

[Itchy]

[smegballs]

Well seems to make more sense to hijack this than post a new thread...

I currently work job A, (min wage and full time) which has my normal personal allowance tax code on it. Soon I will be starting the better paid job B on about full time hours, but will continue job A a few nights a week for pocket money.

Obviously what will happen is that job B, which will be my new primary job, will have the BR tax code and thus I will get taxed to shit on it. How do I swap the tax codes around so that job B gets my personal allowance and pocket money job A gets the BR tax code?

[Itchy]

[mentalboy]

[monkeybiker]

[Itchy]

[Itchy]

[smegballs]

[mentalboy]

[Itchy]

[monkeybiker]

I wonder if we could vote to swap the HMRC for the mafia. They seem a lot more friendly

[Redd]

[Itchy]

[Redd]

Cheers Itchy Yes, I've done the SA and the amount I've paid is the outcome of that. Think the excuses route to avoid penalties is not going to fly
____________________
Professional Uberslacker
2006 Kawasaki Z1000 - Black at the front, airbrushed fade to red at the back.
1998 Kawasaki KDX 200 Enduro project bike

[stinkwheel]

My brother was let off a fine for a late VAT submission once after he wrote them a letter explaining he, his wife and two toodlers were all suffering from an explosive diarrhoea bug (they were).

Mind you, they don't get it all their own way all the time. I distinctly recall my Dad being instructed by the tax office to deduct a portion of an employees wages against an unpaid tax bill. He looked at it and saw there was no way the guy could live for the week on what this would leave. It also turned out this was tax the guy would eventually get back anyway in the fullness of time (the guy had been self-employed and they were trying to collect tax from this on top of the PAYE from his new job). So he refused and paid the guy as normal (manual worker so a cash pay packet).

The tax office were fucking raging but after they were done carrying themselves on about it and threatening him with all sorts, it turned out nobody involved could work out what the enforcement action for an employer refusing to follow their instructions were other than "Because you've got to." and "Because we say so.".
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.