Am being investigated (Non IR35)

[Flat Eric]

Anyone got any advice.. I am absolutely shi**ing myself.

HRMC says I owe nearly £24k in back taxes from an incorrectly filed self assessment. back in 2004.

easy to say but the mistake was genuine.

M.

[Troll]

Anyone got any advice.. I am absolutely shi**ing myself.

HRMC says I owe nearly £24k in back taxes from an incorrectly filed self assessment. back in 2004.

easy to say but the mistake was genuine.

M.

That sounds like quite a rounding error!! if it is 24k does that include interest charges?- first things first do you agree with their figures?

[malvolio]

Anyone got any advice.. I am absolutely shi**ing myself.

HRMC says I owe nearly £24k in back taxes from an incorrectly filed self assessment. back in 2004.

easy to say but the mistake was genuine.

M.

In the PCG? Use their insurance-backed investigations process: call the office and explain.

If not, it's too late to join now, so talk to your accountant. If you haven't got one, get one.

Do not talk to Hector, do everything in writing. If it all goes wrong and you have to pay, negotiate terms: if it was a genuine error, they should be willing to spread the load.

[rootsnall]

In the PCG? Use their insurance-backed investigations process: call the office and explain.

If not, it's too late to join now

That should get a few new signings !

If you managed to make a 24K error then you most certainly need an acountant to go through things with you, who did your Co return that year ?

[Flat Eric]

That sounds like quite a rounding error!! if it is 24k does that include interest charges?- first things first do you agree with their figures?

Yep, no rounding error and yes, it is an accurate figure and no, it doesn't include there penalties & interest yet.

It's a first offence and, as I said, a genuine mistake. I was working for a european arm of a US company and was offered equity in the US arm. The whole company was then acquired by a UK company and my equity was bought out. I continued to work for the new UK company. When I accepted the equity I was informed that the kind of agreement I signed meant that it was free of UK income tax, admittedly I was told this by a manager and not the accountant.. My P60 for the year was issued and no mention of the payment was there so I assumed that the payment was indeed free from income tax. I reported the P60 figures on my self assessment and thought nothing more of it.

Yes, I know this sounds incredibly naive in hindsight..

Didn't sleep at all last night worrying about it...

[ASB]

Anyone got any advice.. I am absolutely shi**ing myself.

HRMC says I owe nearly £24k in back taxes from an incorrectly filed self assessment. back in 2004.

easy to say but the mistake was genuine.

M.

Check any insurance you may have to see if you can get representation. It's probably best not to try and deal with it yourself.

24k sounds like an awful lot. Is this including penalties and interest? If not it represents, for example, the extra tax on 100k of net dividends if a higher rate taxpayer or higher rate tax on 60k of untaxed income.

If you have in mind a figure you believe you owe then making a deposit with HMRC would stop the interest clock ticking. At least on the amount you deposit. You will get back any excess. (When investigated it took about 3 years for me to get from the initial assessment to actual agreement. Loads of interest I could have avoided by paying my estimate up front). A good advisor should be able to negotiate the penalties to at most 15% n the event everything was just a mistake.

There are also time limits for an enquiry window, in general for April 2004 this would be February 2006. If this is the first you have heard of it then they are theoretically out of luck.

Don't try and go it alone unless you beleive their figures are entirely correct.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/faqs/wha_appen.htm

[Flat Eric]

The figures are correct. I cannot disagree with them.

During the period in question I was permanently employed so not a "companies books" issue..

[sidknows]

24 k error -- how can that be a genuine mistake and more importantly , why has it taken son long for them to discover it

[ASB]

The figures are correct. I cannot disagree with them.

During the period in question I was permanently employed so not a "companies books" issue..

Your reply and mine crossed.

It would seem to me that you need to ascertain why the enquiry into you has been opened "out of time". However I doubt it will be of much help. Since your employer seems to be the cause of the cock up it's probably covered by the "other information comes to light" caveat.

At least you should be able to negotiate time to pay (I managed 12 months). I expect you have probably read this:

http://www.contractoruk.com/legal_ad...stigation.html

[ChimpMaster]

24 k error -- how can that be a genuine mistake and more importantly , why has it taken son long for them to discover it

It is a little odd how HMRC spontaneously come out with an enquiry after 3 years of your SA submission. But I also had one in mid-2007 for my 2004 return - to do with another investment matter. I cleared it up by proving that I had made no profit that year (which was true).

Are they treating this 24k as a tax on a profit you made on the equity (shares?). Can you offset any losses you made that year against this... losses on shares, property etc?

It's weird how they said that they will only make enquiries within 12 months of the deadline date, but then they say that they can investigate anytime if they feel you have not told them everything. Maybe someone singled you out for this.