Tax man wrote to say I owe PAYE/NIC

[EchoSierra]

I got a letter from HMRC alleging that I owe about £1000 in unpaid PAYE/NIC. No other information relating to what tax year, what I owe compared to what they've received - nothing except the statement of "PAYE/NIC amount overdue plus interest £1000".

I'm diligent on what I owe with VAT, Corp Tax, PAYE/NIC, etc and pay PAYE/NIC every month after I pay myself. Its not much since I'm the only shareholder in the company and pay myself dividends. I pay electronically and put in the reference code.

I wrote back to HMRC detailing the last 12 month's PAYE/NIC payments with the dates and reference numbers of those payments. Got these details from my business banking statements so its verifiable.

I'm just surprised that there was no pre-cursor to this letter with perhaps a little more detail so I can discuss it with them and compare to my own figures. All of a sudden I get this "pay up" letter which kinda feels like HMRC is the big bully on the block. HMRC have made mistakes with my accounts before and I'm not inclined to believe I owe them anything.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any thoughts on this?

TIA.

[Lumiere]

Are you sure it was from the HMRC and not from a former king of Nigeria in exile ?

[xoggoth]

They tend to carry these things forward so may relate to earlier years. A few months ago I had something saying they owed me for not claiming the tax free online filing thing in 2006/7. Don't think you can do much except request details. I suspect with change to 4 years time limit for normal cases they have been checking back records to see what might be owed.

[EchoSierra]

Are you sure it was from the HMRC and not from a former king of Nigeria in exile ?

haha
It could be that some of my reference numbers weren't exactly right because I didn't know that for 09/10 the reference is 10MM and not 09MM. They've managed to improve that section now:
HM Revenue & Customs: How to pay PAYE/Class 1 National Insurance contributions

[EchoSierra]

They tend to carry these things forward so may relate to earlier years. A few months ago I had something saying they owed me for not claiming the tax free online filing thing in 2006/7. Don't think you can do much except request details. I suspect with change to 4 years time limit for normal cases they have been checking back records to see what might be owed.

Thanks for the reply. I only started the company from mid-Apr 2008 so it can only go back to the 08/09 tax year. Before that I was using an umbrella company.

[thunderlizard]

haha
It could be that some of my reference numbers weren't exactly right because I didn't know that for 09/10 the reference is 10MM and not 09MM. They've managed to improve that section now:
HM Revenue & Customs: How to pay PAYE/Class 1 National Insurance contributions

I bet it's that. They'll have allocated your last payment or two to this tax year instead of the previous one. Anyway, ring up the number on the letter and ask them to check - if applicable, they should be able to reallocate the payments while you're on the phone.

Like I had to on Monday...
http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...ml#post1179269

[d000hg]

A couple of times I'e had letters because the automated system put my money against the wrong time-period... so the current one reports underpayment.

[ASB]

A couple of times I'e had letters because the automated system put my money against the wrong time-period... so the current one reports underpayment.

In the same post one got I got:-

- A demand for about 20k of CT for year 2
- A repayment order for 20k of CT (plus interest) which they had allocated to year 1 because I paid it early. I definately used the correct year reference.

Oh well, only 800 mln of EDS development to fix it I suppose.

[Wanderer]

I got a letter from HMRC alleging that I owe about £1000 in unpaid PAYE/NIC. No other information relating to what tax year, what I owe compared to what they've received - nothing except the statement of "PAYE/NIC amount overdue plus interest £1000".

Are you sure you have filed all your paperwork on time? At times when my Co has not been trading and failed to file the returns, they just make up a (suitably scary) number and send you a demand for that much. You send in the correct paperwork and that's it.

[thunderlizard]

In the same post one got I got:-

- A demand for about 20k of CT for year 2
- A repayment order for 20k of CT (plus interest) which they had allocated to year 1 because I paid it early. I definately used the correct year reference.

yup, I've had that combination too (but in the same letter). With the demand blatently dated 10 days before they must have posted it so that the deadline was already the past.