XXXXXXXXX
Date:28th February 2013
HM Revenue and Customs
HM Inspector of Taxes
PAY AS YOU EARN
PO BOX 1970
LIVERPOOL
L75 1WX
Dear Sir,
NAME: XXXXXXXXX
NI NO.:XXXXXXXXX
TAX Reference:XXXXX
HMRC P800 REF NO:XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: P800 tax calculation and claim for ExtraStatutory Concession A19
I have received your tax calculation suggesting that I have underpaid tax. Not being an expert in tax matters, I was unaware that my tax affairs were not in order. I had thought that all the tax that I was due to pay was deducted under PAYE. I believe that the underpayment has arisen because you failed to take action upon relevant information already in your possession for the years in question.
I joined CURRENT EMPLOYER as a permanent Employee in August 2009 and have worked for them ever since. On joining I submitted my P45 toCURRENT EMPLOYER. Since then in my employment with CURRENT EMPLOYER, where my tax was dealt with under PAYE, I have never received any information from HMRC or Government that I would need to check the tax. As this was my only source of Income with tax getting deducted under PAYE I was under the belief that my tax affairs were in order so far.
In the tax year 2009/10 I was working as self employed for a few months and then I joined CURRENT EMPLOYER in the middle of the year. As I do not understand the tax terms very well and having no expertise on the tax front, my accountant has filled in my tax returns for 2009/10 on my behalf. Immediately after,I closed my company accounts with the help of my accountant, as I was only getting paid through PAYE and tax getting deducted at source.
As a PAYE employed person I didn’t fill in tax returns for the tax year 2010-2011, thinking that my tax is getting deducted in a right way at the source and also I didn’t receive any specific letter from HMRC about filing in a tax return. Surprisingly in March 2012, I received a letter from HMRC for a £100 fine for not filling the Tax Returns. As this was bit of shock for me I have called up HMRC to get the further clarification on why I received the letter asking me to pay the fine for not filing the TAX returns. When I have called up HMRC on 1st March 2012, you have accepted that there is no need to file the tax returns due to the fact that I am getting paid/tax deducted under PAYE, and this being the only source of income for me and then subsequently you have cancelled £100 fine and confirmed this by sending a cancellation letter (attached the copy of cancellation letter by HMRC)Even during this call, and subsequent communication, no further information has been given to me that my tax was underpaid at that time. This has strengthened my belief that my tax situation is in order.
On 13th June 2012 I made another call to you asking for my employment history summarised in a letter. Subsequently, I have received a letter from you about my employment history and overall tax paid during these years. But you didn’t mention about any underpayment during the telephone conversation and there is no such information on the letter (attached copy of the employment history letter sent on 14th June 2012)
My employer has promptly sent the P60 for the years 2010/11 and 2011/12 to HMRC with copies sent to me and I never received a letter during the last 3 years about any change of my tax code. But with these underpayment notices, I received another letter for change of tax code for the year 2012/13 which is the current tax year and this has been quickly reflected on my salary. One thing to understand here clearly that normally tax code gets changed in the beginning of the tax year. But as this information has been used now only after 2 years I have received this tax code change letter in the middle of the tax year (Attached copy of the tax code change letter received). This clearly shows that even if my employer CURRENT EMPLOYER has provided the tax information to HMRC for the years in question, the HMRC has failed to act upon that information twice and allowed the arrears to build up.
This clearly shows that for the year 2010-2011, I have received this underpayment notice in January 2013,which is more that 12 months after the end of tax year in which HMRC received the information indicating that more tax was due.
For the tax year 2011/12, I appreciate that you are not notifying me of the arrears more than 12 months after the end of the tax year in which you received the information indicating that more tax was due. However I feel that the ‘exceptional circumstances’ condition applies because you:
• Failed more than once to make proper use of the facts you had been given about my sources of income
• Allowed the arrears to build up over two whole tax years in succession by failing to make proper and timely use of information that you had been given.
I am therefore requesting that under the provisions of ESC A19 that the whole of the underpayment as shown on the P800 should be remitted.
Pending consideration of my case, I would be grateful if you would suspend any action to collect the tax you say I owe, either by way of direct demand or via my PAYE coding.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully
Attached:
- Copy of cancellation letter by HMRC
- Copy of the employment history letter sent on 14th June 2012
- Copy of the tax code change letter received
- Copy of the ESCA19