Not claimed MCA for years

Can I go back any further than 4 years?

Didn't find your answer?

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??

Replies (12)

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By Tim Vane
31st May 2016 16:09

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.

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Replying to Tim Vane:
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By Southwestbeancounter
31st May 2016 18:14

Tim Vane wrote:

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!

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Replying to Tim Vane:
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By TickTock
31st May 2016 19:12

[quote=Tim Vane]

Are you really under 20? Makes me feel old.

You're right, I should correct it to just 'tax return'. I don't think I'd like to be under 20 again, just under 30 would be good though ;)

Thanks to both of you for your replies, I will consider putting in an overpayment relief claim for the older years, it's worth a try!

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Replying to SteveHa:
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By Duncan Cameron
02nd Jun 2016 19:08

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.

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Replying to Duncan Cameron:
By SteveHa
03rd Jun 2016 08:34

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.

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Replying to SteveHa:
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By Duncan Cameron
03rd Jun 2016 18:26

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.

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By petersaxton
01st Jun 2016 18:02

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.

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Replying to petersaxton:
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By KH
02nd Jun 2016 14:53

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.......

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By RetirednRelaxing
02nd Jun 2016 19:35

"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.

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Replying to fawltybasil2575:
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By TickTock
03rd Jun 2016 13:33

Thanks Basil, you're right, the circumstances are more involved. Unfortunately the previous accountant is quite advanced in years (his words not mine) and dementia has just shown itself. There were underpayments in previous years and there was no reconciliation as far as I can see - the HMRC calculations were just accepted as correct. I am claiming back between £1,500 and £2,000 for each of the last 4 years. As far as I can see there hasn't been any remedial action & I have the previous accountants files.

It will be quite a bit of work going through the manual returns & HMRC calculations but I think it's worth trying a claim on the out of date years.

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Replying to TickTock:
By Tim Vane
03rd Jun 2016 20:04

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.

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