Paul was charged £1,300 in late filing penalties – on earnings of £902.77 from when he was self-employed. Now working and on universal credit, he had no spare money to cover this tax bill and no idea what to do next.
Confidence knocked by scammers
On top of that, Paul was anxious about using the internet to manage his taxes. Four years previously, he’d been scammed – all of his money was taken from his bank account. He tried logging into his HMRC account but was too scared that he would click the wrong thing and get scammed again. He didn’t know who to trust.
Reaching out for help
He phoned us. He told Donna, our expert in tax, about his late filing fee. He thought his tax code was also wrong. He sent over copies of his papers so that we could investigate.
We worked with Paul to submit an appeal for the late filing penalties and rang HMRC on his behalf to find out about his tax code. Paul was right – his tax code was incorrect due to a system error and Paul’s account had been merged with another individual through no fault of his own.
Getting taxes in order
The result? The £1,300 late filing penalty was dropped and he was put on the correct tax code. Now that he was paying the right amount of tax each month, he had more take-home pay.
Paul said: “Thank you so much. It is most appreciated. I didn’t know where to turn and thought I was going to have to pay another accountant to help me to appeal as the form made no sense. Many thanks once again for your valuable help.’
Thanks to our support, Paul doesn’t have to stress about paying a tax bill that he cannot afford and has a clearer understanding of his own tax situation.