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HM revenue have sent me a letter saying that their records show I have not paid off the child benefit we continued to receive for 10 months after the rules changed. For the last two years I have had to do self assessment forms because of this erroneous 10 months of child benefit and so believe I have paid it back through higher tax codes.
Mrs Bubs thinks everything is automated and so can't go wrong but this feels like human error to me. Has anyone successfully argued a tax demand? Are there real people you can talk too behind these letters? Do they make mistakes? I guess the first step is to try and dig up all of the old forms and letters... 🙁
Yes. Sort of. This kind of happened to me. I received some last year, which I shouldn't have done. I stopped it and they claimed it back that tax year. This year I did my SA and told them I'd stopped receiving it, but they still tried to claim back what I might have got paid this tax year. I rang up and went through it all and they admitted their mistake and changed my code back. A good number to call is 0161 931 9070 - straight through to a person every time with no wait and knowledgable, helpful staff. Good luck.
Yes, argue everything, it'll take at least twenty minutes to get through, prepare to be on hold, but you can get a human eventually and you can appeal to their better nature, they are under resourced under staffed and under pressure so be nice and you can be pleasantly surprised by their helpfulness, they are being screwed over by exactly the same bastards that we are, worse than the iron bank.
Mcvities won their case about Jaffa Cakes
Had some massive problems with tax credits that have dragged on since 2010 - overpayments caused by their own delayed handling of information, they then managed to mess that up even more and pay me even more money.
Sometime in the last year HMRC have set up 'extra care' teams that take on issues that the worker drones on the helpline can't deal with - ended up with a fantastic girl who sorted everything out, phoned me back when she said she would, resolved everything in a couple of weeks, excellent service, I think they wrote off about two grand in the end that was all down to HMRC error.
This all sounds positive thanks. @Edric 64 - that takes the biscuit.
When I had a run-in with them I gave up and paid then £1400 that I still maintain wasn't due simply because it became economically unviable for me to continue to dispute it.
i got three letters in one week from them once. first one said I owed them ~£1500, second one about £500 and the third had a cheque for £400 in it.
I binned the first two and kept the last one.
I wouldn't say fought, but succesfully corrected- something sort of similiar, they were convinced I received jobseeker's allowance for a year, when I'd been in work (and paye-ing). Then decided the onus of proof was on me to prove the negative. First time round, they accepted it eventually but a second mistake which they'd made, which I hadn't bothered to correct as it was so trivial, caused more confusion so they got the refund wrong. Finally got the rest of it just recently but it's taken 3 years, on and off.
Don't assume that the calculations are right, ever. The maths will probably be right, the assumptions and base information may be wrong.
On the odd occasions when I've had to deal with HMRC I've found them helpful and pleasant, against my expectations.
Mcvities won their case about Jaffa Cakes
that takes the biscuit.
It was a piece of cake
Do the same people do the child tax credits?
When I got married, gaining a step child, I filled in the forms for this. Was delighted to get a letter saying I would get £900 a month, and see that the first £900 was already in the bank. The follow up letter reveals they had got the decimal place I the wrong place on my salary 🙁
@Russianbob - thanks for that number, I got straight through to a real person. Brilliant!
Unfortunately it was human error, but it was mine. I hadn't ticked a box and so I have been paying more but not against the right thing. Bang goes my Carbon frame aspirations for this summer.
I have had a few queries over the years. I have always found them very polite in dealing with them. I have had them change things in my favour but that's really a victory more just correcting a mistake.
Harry Redknapp, or more accurately his dog managed to beat HMRC in court. What you need is a scapegoat (or dog) and bullet proof mitigation; "I can't read or write, honest gov!".
Good luck.
Many fights over correcting the ineptitude which seems to be standard both in personal and corporate tax.
I gave up using the phones as the letters I got from them were more use in showing them how useless they were. Two offices contradicting each other, that sort of thing.
It all gets sorted if you can face the hassle and time.
I have been trying to speak to them for months. I fall between the cracks on something with my income, have many months left to deal with it, but need to speak to a person.
Foolishly tried phoning March/APril. Now I just get stuck in a circle speaking to machines that don't understand my accent. Will try that Manchester number - send that to Viz magazine hints and tips.
Was involved in a VAT dispute that went all the way through the tribunal process, and eventually we won, and HMRC lost. It was worth millions to our company, and other companies doing similar work also benefited from the ruling.
Now that I work at a charity reliant on ever-dwindling public funding, I'm not quite so massively proud of that as I used to be.
On a personal level, I also had the joy of dealing with the child tax credit thing at one point - the highlight being the day we received three different letters in the same postal delivery, two of which said we would be receiving payments for the current year, but for totally different amounts, and the third saying that we owed them money.
Yes.
Out of the blue they sent a demand for something like £3k.
About 5yrs later it came to be revealed that they slipped and added an extra zero somewhere.
Only took ~5yrs to sort. The baliff letters tended to come whilst I was away too.
I think they are lovely people.
Conclusion was a letter with zero to pay, no apology.
Not fought, but as others got a unexpected tax demand for unpaid company car tax years ago. Rang up and they were very helpful, the guy said I must have been driving a jumbo jet to get a bill that large and made the corrections there and then, I even got a rebate.
So I would always advise to ring them as I think the system does throw wobblers every now and then.
they're usually pretty helpful. as others have said, be prepared to be on hold for a while and don't treat them like most call center staff (maybe just me who gets very irritated with phone monkeys) and you will usually get some form of compromise.
due to the ineptitude of the large corporate HR & Benefits team at my place, i ended up owing several thousand in tax due to an undeclared benefit in kind. this has wreaked havoc with my tax code for the past 18 months and it seems to change on a whim, swinging wildly from overly generous - you've forgotten about my company car again haven't you, to incredibley stingy - not even jimmy car can owe that much tax.
normally find a happy common ground every time i call them
tyrionl1 - Member
Yes, argue everything, it'll take at least twenty minutes to get through, prepare to be on hold, but you can get a human eventually and you can appeal to their better nature, they are under resourced under staffed and under pressure so be nice and you can be pleasantly surprised by their helpfulness, they are being screwed over by exactly the same bastards that we are, worse than the iron bank.
We get what we pay for.
Update: using russianbob's excellent number I went back to them with more documentation. I spoke to a really friendly and helpful person and just spelt out the situation. I have now gone from a large tax demand to an equally large tax refund and a lower rate going forward. The carbon frame (and a new matching tyre :wink:) is back on! Thanks one and all.