Tax Credit fraud!

[bluetack]

This thread is quite complicated but I need some urgent, expert help if possible please!

 

We started to claim tax credits when my husband lost two businesses and declared himself bankrupt, this was probably about 6-7 years ago. He was discharged after 1 year and became employed by a large company working full time. I, meanwhile invented a product and gained a full patient and my husband took on the task of trying to sell my product as well as working full time (non-conflicting) because I wasn't able to.

 

When my husband went bankrupt all joint debts were transferred to me even though I don't work because I have a progressive degenerative desease. The payments on these debts had to come from my husbands salary.

 

I rang the tax credits helpline and explained our situation. They pointed me towards their legislation that said: any business losses from self employment could be carried forward to future years i.e. if you earned £20k but had losses of £200k (like us) deduct one from the other then put zero in the income box.

We thought this was pretty daft but we looked it up on their website like they told us to do and sure enough it was there! (and still is)

 

We filled out the tax credit forms in this way knowing that as my husband paid tax and n.i. as normal from his wages the inland revenue always knew that our tax credit claim was transparent.

 

Everything was fine until about 2 months ago. We received a letter from tc saying we were under investigation. I rang them immediately and explained the above. After much discussion with other departments the lady told me that the information I was given was only for people who were still self employed and that it was their fault because the information on the website was confusing. She told me not to worry, they would send us a letter in a few weeks.

 

We continued to receive tax credits and didn't really think too much about it.

 

Yesterday we received 5 letters from tc demanding that we re-pay £12,000 each.

Today we received 2 more letters fining us £1,300 each for deception, we have 30 days to pay this.

 

We are still paying off my husbands debts, we have numerous second charges on the property and a huge mortgage. Our tiny house is in negative equity because it was in the 2007 floods (thats why the official receiver didn't want it).

My wonderful invention never took off for reasons too complicated to explain so we have an abundance of stock that won't sell.

 

My questions are:

Can someone be fully employed and self employed?

We acted on their advice-we'd never have found that information on our own so why are we being classed as criminals?

We have no money, can't even afford a stair carpet, been without one since the floods so how the hell can we pay all this?

Will we both be sent to prison, I think I'd rather top myself than face that final humiliation?

 

Oh, and the tax credits have stopped!

[SKJP]

Sorry, this is too complicated for me and my lack of knowledge - hopefully someone else will be able to advise you on the finer points.

 

Re: repayment - you need to contact them and attempt to negotiate a more manageable repayment plan, including repayment for the £1,300 fine that needs to be repaid imminently. If you have no luck, or don't know what to do, contact the CAB as soon as you can.

 

Re: prison - extremely unlikely. It would appear as though you've already been 'dealt with' via this hefty fine. HMRC have a strong preference towards civil 'punishment'. In HMRC terms, what you're alleged to have done is small beer. They reserve powers of full-on criminal investigation - and subsequent prosecution - for the most serious and extreme tax and TC offences (such as organised offences involving criminal gangs, or very stupid TC frauds like inventing non-existent children!).

 

Might be worth contacting HMRC for a quick chat to confirm whether or not the 'punishment' side of things has been finalised, and that there'll be no further action (other than repaying the sums involved).

 

In any instance, it may be worth making a fresh claim for TC based on your current circumstances. However, due to the complexity of your situation, it might be worth consulting an experienced adviser as part of making this claim, to avoid any further problems. If you are awarded TC, they may simply deduct past overpayments from some or all of your new award, meaning that whilst your personal financial situation may not get any better, the large overpayments you've incurred can be dealt with easier.