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What they are doing there is procedural. They only issued the tax return for 17-18 a month ago but your conversation with them 8 days ago has meant that they've had to go through the process of cancelling the new return. What they told you last week about the penalties invoked for earlier years being cancelled is probably still correct, but they didn't want you to be in a similar situation this time next year for 2017/18
Also it's unusual for HMRC to deal by email. I've got a feeling that when you initially advised them that you ceased self employment, that the email back to you was from the national insurance department which works almost independently from the Self assessment crew as mad as that may sound. You often have to tell both departments separately.
I think you may be right, as the three time I've rang them I've had three different answers.
Phone call one; We can't do nothing for you. You'll have to fill in Self Assessment forms the the previous four years.
Phone call two; We can see you've signed off in 2014. We will send you a new tax code and reimburse you the money we've wrongly taken off you.
Phone call three; We'll pass this to another department and they'll ring you back in the next five working days.
You'd think so , but it would appear that the information doesn't transfer correctly from one computer system to another. Each morning this week I've had to ring HMRC to tell them that they've calculated clients tax and Nic incorrectly as they have failed to charge class 2 national insurance. On each occasion they have said that they didn't know the client was self employed, even though they have charged them class 4 Nic that you only pay if you are self employed. Work that out!! They then have to add that information was transferred onto a new computer system 2 years ago and some information was lost during the transfer. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence.
At least sorting this out daily this week has stopped me from thinking too long about Sundays game.
I can understand them making a mistake by thinking I was still self employed and hadn't filled in my Self Assessments for the previous few years, as we all make mistakes. What I can't understand is, me telling them I have a cease trading email off them thanking me for telling them I'd stopped being self employed, which they can see their end, and they're still not sorting it out.
You are under no obligation to file a tax return since 2014/5. This is a straightforward appeal and HMRC will rescind the notice and cancel the penalties.
Whatever you do, don't do this.
If you file a return then you can only appeal any penalties on grounds of reasonable excuse.
The best course of action is to demonstrate no returns were due for each return period. The return period will be closed and the penalty and interest will fall off automatically.
PM me and I will point you in the right direction.
This is common practice with HM Retards & Cretins. We deal with them daily and it's always entertaining when we school the taxman of the law.
Fortunately for you you have TMA1970 and plenty of FTT cases on your side.
I would hazard a guess you have been speaking to officers and not higher officers or managers. You need to go higher up (or get your accountant to write a letter explaining the law).
NO RETURN WAS DUE
You are under no obligation to inform HMRC you have stopped trading. The only obligation is to inform HMRC if you need to file a tax return. The reason HMRC ask you to keep them updated is to avoid issues like this, which cost HMRC time and money to resolve.
You are on solid ground and as HSH and Auntie Andy have alluded to, you have been speaking with ill informed junior staff.
To call HMRC employees retards and cretins is totally out of order. It’s this government you should be calling retards and cretins. Staff are overworked, undertrained and underpaid. Stressed to the hilt and working with computer systems which are not fit for purpose. How much do you earn a year compared to an AO you speak to and berate on the phone?
If you owe them 50p they're all over you like a rash but as soon as they owe you money it turns in to the krypton factor, 2 years after I finished self employment I was still having a nightmare with them I may aswell just phoned every **** down there to tell them I finished self employment
Was about 12 years ago but sure my accountant managed to sort it in the end and managed to get me a rebate just remember the grief I had because I didn't tell every ****er who works for her majesty that I finished self employment "You told this department but that doesn't mean they will tell this department because this department actually needs to know" aarrrggghhh
I had the same problem with them, they kept sending me letters every so often saying I owed thousands of pounds in fines etc, eventually after speaking to them about 5 times they cancelled all the fines. They are hard work to deal with but you just need to keep being persistent. The fella i spoke to eventually was great and cancelled the fines on his computer there and then. Might be worth to keep ringing up until you speak to someone who will get it sorted there and then
Cheers, mate.
I'll wait and see if I hear anything from them in the next fortnight. If I don't get any joy I'll get my accountant to try and sort it out for me. HMRC have been taking money from me since the beginning of April without informing me. I noticed my pay was down on what it normally was, so checked my docket and noticed I was paying double PAYE.
Such an easy error for them to rectify too.
I love the irony that HMRC are seen by many as the government's equivalent of Satan because they collect taxes, but forget that tax receipts are used to fund other public services such as health and education.