Self Assesment Late

[adridude]

Hi,

 

I just logged into my self assesment online as I received my usual yearly thing to do it. To my surprise, I have a £100 fine which is paid, I dont quibble first with HMRC!

 

Looking abck throug mu eail I see all the years before notices asking me to do them but last year there wasn't one. Th eonly difference is that last year, CIS was involved but the contract with the accountant was purely for business accounts. 

 

I can't find any other reason why I would have missed it, nor would I have (As demonstrated for years).

 

Where the heck do i start here?

 

I haven't spoken to the ex accountants yet as I want my facts all clear before I even look into it. But I'm 100% positive that HMRC hasn't send me a  notification, as I've got them all saved, dating back years. I dont delete mail, I archive it.

 

On top of that on my statement on the self assessment site, it's all listed there, every year, uniformly on the same day and wham, a new anomaly. Them There's an entry which reads:

 

15 Apr 21 Late Filing Penalty for 19/20   100.00

 

The statement date is: March 2021 as I just generated it today ( 27/93/2021).. i might be wrong, but I dont seem to remember receiving a bill  19 days from today... Also on top of that, when I did log in to do my yearly return, it gave me a 19 day window to pay it.

 

Had I not logged in to do my usual in response to their email, that would have gone un noticed.

 

1) I was able to file an assessment last year as I was unsure about something and left them with a query on 18/08/2021. I never heard back from them.

2) I never received any notifications last year, hence the August submission.

3) I was in the middle of being evicted by my landlord as he was selling. He was also in the process of blackmailing me for tenancy references amongst other things. Despite all this, i stayed in touch with HMRC. Can I even use this?

4) Were they ever going to notify me about this fine or just fire, forget and hope it gets increased?

 

I'm annoyed now as I've I've got a very clear policy when it comes to HMRC and thats keep it all in shape. The £100 I dont care about, the black mark against my name I do! Can I challenge this and if so how?

 

I tried the online "challenge  penalty" link on their site, but surprise surprise,  it doesnt bode well with dates places in the future. So i can't accurately give them the date the fine was issued according to their OWN records.

 

Any pointers here? I' worried now as we're just coming out of COVID and I'm dead scared that things like this will escalate out of control and affect a job that I fought tooth and nail to get after a long struggle. 

 

Cheers,

 

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[BazzaS]

Did you work exclusively by PAYE, and tell HMRC that you did (and so didn’t need to file a tax return). If you did so and they accepted this, and didn’t then send you a notice to file self assessment : then I’d fight it on those grounds.

 

If you didn’t, and knew you needed to file (if only from having to file for previous years), you are up against it. HMRC will point out that you should have known you needed to file, and that they’ve run adverts letting people know of the deadline (and the penalty being automatic!) for some years.....

 

By all means ask for clemency, but the reasons you’ve given don’t meet HMRC’s guidance for automatic cancellation of the penalty. You should also file ASAP, too.

 

There is no reason this should affect your current employment, especially if you sort it promptly.

Edited March 27, 2021 by BazzaS

[adridude]

Ah right, I've just seen something. As they addressed the company suffering CIS as it was supplying railway work, they did indeed do my SA last year.

 

Which leads me to another issue. I applied in March last year for PAYE etc... through my accountant, as this had to be done to address CIS. HMRC literally dragged their feet for months before they got it actioned. 

 

I emailed my accountaint at least once a week, sometimes on a daily basis chasing the registration of PAYE, but HMRC was delaying it quoting covid being the cause of delay, which was understandable.

 

It's clear now that their inability to register me for PAYE, resulted in all of this, despite being pushed. I have  a clear papertrail of all this beween my accountant and myself.

 

Would that be valid enough to get the blemish removed or is COVID a non-factor when it comes to this?

 

 

[slick132]

Hi Adri,

 

In bullet points with dates, can you give more info about your work history giving detail of when you started or stopped being self employed, employed, Co Director, or whatever. Info from 6/4/19 onwards please. Also confirm for each entry if you paid PAYE, no tax or CIS deductions at the lower or higher rate.

 

Then we can see what you were doing and when.

 

I'll address your points 1. to 4. and other issues tomorrow when I have more time.

 

Meanwhile, in item #1. above, I assume you meant the date to be 18/8/2020 but please confirm.