I have just picked up a new client. He's 85 and has been doing a self assessment return for longer than I have been alive. His previous accountant is also quite old and has been doing manual returns. There are quite a few errors on the returns, I am amending the 14/15 return and submitting overpayment claims for 13/14 and 12/13. One of the main errors was not claiming the Married Couples Allowance and this goes back further than 12/13. I know what the answer is but I thought I'd ask the question anyway, can I go back any further? HMRC have included the MCA in his tax code but not in his tax calculation ..... the box on the tax return was not ticked so I'm sure I can't go back any further. It just seems a real shame ....
BTW, what are these 'tags' all about when you post? None of them are relevant to my question but I have to choose one??
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Are you really under 20? Makes me feel old.
Anyhow, it cannot hurt to put in a claim for overpayment relief for affected years. You have to balance your fees against the possible gains and do what is in the best interest of the client.
Are you really under 20? Makes me feel old.
Anyhow, it cannot hurt to put in a claim for overpayment relief for affected years. You have to balance your fees against the possible gains and do what is in the best interest of the client.
Agreed - I successfully went back to the 2008/09 tax year for a client very recently - it took a year to get him a hefty refund but I based it on what felt morally correct! (He was a 'cheapskate' and had gone to HMRC 'back in the day' when they would complete your tax return for you and they got it wrong!) HMRC threw it out at first with a nonchalant one line retort but I persisted and an inspector rang me and said that she'd read my 'arguments' and actually agreed with me, wanted confirmation that the client still lived at the same address and advised me that he'd accrued £25 of interest!! So persistence is the key but it depends on fees as well - I was helping out a friend of my other half so I wasn't billing and I spent hours on it quoting case law etc but the satisfaction outweighed the £300-£400 lost fee!
This may be of interest. http://www.tribunals.gov.uk/financeandtax/Documents/decisions/Higgs-v-HM...
Getting back to the question, I'm not sure that Higgs is relevant - it concerned a case where there was no assessment; this is a case where the assessments are wrong.
If the client has a reasonable excuse, try http://www.tribunals.gov.uk/financeandtax/Documents/decisions/Vasiliki-R... this instead. But be warned HMRC are not happy and have appealed it.
I'm not convinced. The ruling in Higgs was that the time limit applies only to HMRC assessments. Since we are talking about an incorrect self-assessment, the scenario could be argued to be caught by the ruling.
I think that there is a distinction between making a return/SA and amending a return/SA that has already been made. There is, per Higgs, no time limit on the former but s9ZA imposes a time limit on the latter (12 months after the 'filing date'). Any 'amendment' after that has a second time limit (the four year limit) Para 3(1) sch 1AB. In Raftopoulou it was held that this second time limit was subject to s118(2). All references are to the TMA 1970.
Am I going mad or is there a big word like "Blogger" and various graphics running over part of the question?
Does it get better if you wait more than the mandatory 10 seconds for the mess to dissipate slightly?
Is this part of the downgrade that shows that accountingweb are forward thinking and down with the cutting edge of technology?
My guess is it's another [***] up due to the downgrade.
it doesn't get any better the longer you wait ... it's a highly successful downgrade, and I applaud the useless bunch of watsits who done it to us, and would like to write BLOGGER all over them.......
"HMRC have included the MCA in his tax code but not in his tax calculation ....". That is an interesting point as it would seem to prove that HMRC knew he is married and entitled to MCA. Therefore you might be able to argue that HMRC knew or should have known that the return was not correct. It gives you a way of putting some of the blame on them. I'd try a couple of letters on a "no win no fee" basis and see what happens.
Presumably the previous accountant had PI insurance. It may be in your client's best interest to make a claim against it. You should certainly be advising your client to consider it as the quickest and easiest way to recover the overpayments.