tax demand true or false

[zaphodbb]

Ok this is a strange one, my mate in the uk sent me an email last night. In it he said he had received two demand letters from the Inland Revenue saying he owed thousands of pounds in unpaid tax, and demanding he pay it back immediately, they said he was one of 15000 people that had underpaid for many years. I was wondering if anyone on DK knows of any hoax tax letters going around, as this all sounds a bit iffy to me. He paid his tax through company payrolls and he is not self employed, so surely the company?s should be held responsible for the error and not him, he is in a terrible state about this and recons he will have to sell his house and car to pay back the sum involved. So if anyone has any ideas or knows of any hoax letters going around about this please reply. But please sensible answers only.

[kianniamh]

Easiest way would be to give his tax office a ring and quote his national insurance number to them. If the company he has worked for has been deducting the wrong amount of tax i'm afraid he would still be liable to pay any errors, one of the only ways the company would be liable would be if they were saying he was self employed and the Revenue proved he was actually an employee.

[patkins]

Sorry I cant be more helpful but the system here is the tax people send your tax deduction details to your employer and it is deducted at source.
Surely,if the English system is similar then the onus is on the revenue as it is their error.
Ok, so there is the argument that taxes have to be paid but, not knowing the full contents of the demand letters, this does sound like a scam-bearing in mind that con artists have there next move planned as to how to extract the money.
I sincerely hope I`m right in saying it`s a scam.

[skywash]

it's not a hoax m8 the tax man reckons there are a few thousand who have under paid, and the same again who have over paid i know cos' my supervisor at work has just got one for ?1,500 it's been on t.v. and allover the papers.

[caveman_nige]

as stated he needs to call the tax office to get confirmation.. they are the only ones who can confirm.. find a HMRC number from google and call it not the number on the letter just in case..

[patkins]

it's not a hoax m8 the tax man reckons there are a few thousand who have under paid, and the same again who have over paid i know cos' my supervisor at work has just got one for ?1,500 it's been on t.v. and allover the papers.

Surely the tax people can come to an arrangement whereby the money can be paid off slowly, I know this is not easy either, but it is`nt your fault.

[Lainie]

id call them and then get legal advice. i got my redundancy nearly 3 yrs ago from an ex civil service dept. i signed on for incapacity benefit and they wrote to me saying i hadnt paid national insurance conts for 9 yrs and couldnt get any benefit!! i told them that was impossible etc etc. they did look into it and after a few months it was sorted.

after all the carry on i asked for a printed statement of all my national insurance contributions that id made in all my working life (anyone can ask for this)

a couple of my friends hubbys have been refused benefit as they were told they hadnt paid enough nat ins conts. turned out prev companies they worked for went bust and hadnt been paying the proper amounts etc so they ended up with a shortfall to pay.

ps

always always make sure your nat insurance number on your pay slip is the correct one. you would be amazed at how many times people are paying conts under the wrong number and have absolutely no idea till they lose their job.

[cablefreejunkie]

they are total ar++holes
they dont care if its there mistake,,they are allowed to make mistakes and get away with it
we on the other hand get penalised,,i could write an essay for you on the various runnings myself and my partner have had with hmrc but im not going to bore you,,be prepared for absolutely no leniancy with this little outfit
they will most probably tell you to get a bank lone or borrow the money,,total nazis

i hope im wrong for your sake mate

[kianniamh]

Sounds harsh but your company is only the middleman for the Revenue who collects the tax/ni on their behalf, it's up to the individual to check the correct deductions are being made usually when you receive your P60 at the end of every tax year.
You can sometimes get an arrangement to pay over a period time but you would have to hammer it home to them that it would make you bankrupt if you had to pay it all back at once so they would get nothing.

[zaphodbb]

thanks for your replys guys, the problem he has is hes 60 years old so paying it up with increased tax payments would mean he would probably be working for nothing for the next five years to pay this off. i dont know about you but the prospect of getting up every morning knowing you will be working just to pay the tax bill would be a nightmare. i had dealings with them many years ago about a company car, and they were heartless relentless basads. they treated me like a criminal and talked to me like i deserved no respect whatsoever. so its true then, well i feel really sorry for my m8. because i know they will hunt him down like a dog and show no mercy. poor guy

[nicolaordish]

tax

could well be a scam mate tell him to call his local tax office to find out .

[patkins]

Gmb posted an update on the Revenue business yesterday in News and Current Affairs forum and I am wondering if Zaps mate has been lucky with a reprieve on his outstanding tax?

[zaphodbb]

just an update, my m8 is sorted and only needs to pay 2050 pounds back, thanks for all you help, its hard for me living here to know whats goin on in the uk, and im grateful to the peeps on dk for their help when i need it. Zap

[opsmonkey]

your mate should get loaned up to the max then ~~~~ off to sunnier climbs... That's terrible that he has to pay that back.. I'd be tempted to get loans up the ying yang, say ?200k then move to Greece with you Zap