One is left wondering how on Earth this could happen? And moreover, how much the pensioner spent on the HMRC helpline trying to let them know.
As seen in a local paper, the Derby Evening Telegraph reports:
A DERBYSHIRE pensioner has been hit by the tax man with an unpaid bill....of £4.7 BILLION.
Doug Yeomans, 78, said the letter has ordered a direct debit will take out of his bank account almost £950 MILLION A MONTH, for the next five months, to pay off the debt.
The father-of-two said: "I opened the letter and saw the amount and thought to myself, 'I'd better start cutting down on the food bill then'.
"They must think I'm a footballer or something, but I don't even think that Russian bloke who owns Chelsea could afford that amount."
Replies (15)
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Wonder
What the penalties would be for a tax payer carelessly using an incorrect number of noughts in his return....
I had this ...
... doddery old boy put the value of his pension pot rather than the pension income on his return!
They did get quite heavy until I filed an amending return.
Pension Pot ?
... doddery old boy put the value of his pension pot rather than the pension income on his return!
They did get quite heavy until I filed an amending return.
Jeez - how big is Doug Yeoman's pension if his pot is £4.7 bn ?
I would be happy to complete a tax return for him today for a small percentage of his tax saving ;)
RM
Whose fault?
The story can be found here, and is a little scant on details.
But examining the picture, the letter is not a tax demand, but a confirmation of setting up a direct debit. Surely he would have had to take some action to set up a direct debit so, as OGA has suggested, is it not possible that the figure originated from him?
HMRC should definitely have a sense check in place to query amounts like this, so there is still no excuse for this going out anyway. The assumption that HMRC have just pulled a figure like this out of thin air (as some seem to be thinking) just seems a little unlikely to me.
Let the comments about me obviously not working in practice (which I have done for quite some time now) commence.
Other Errors
Whilst this is clearly an error and you can laugh it off, it makes you wonder just how many other random errors are made, but are for believable amounts and just get paid and never queried.
Could well be a reference number put in the wrong place. I once came across a customer account where the date had been put into the payment amount box - putting the account of a sub-prime loan customer massively in credit. The system then started giving them massive positive interest for the 10 days until it was corrected, wiping out the entire loan balance! Why the system would allow this I have no idea, but being the cold hearted fellow I am, I soon had the mistake unpicked and his debt reinstated!
Not proved random
You ask about other random errors, but this has not yet been proved to be random. If Mr Yeoman put a reference number in the wrong place, then the resulting demand is not random. It is based on information supplied by the taxpayer. I strongly suspect that Mr Yeoman is more than likely a victim of his own carelessness, not anyone within HMRC. Whilst this is clearly an error and you can laugh it off, it makes you wonder just how many other random errors are made, but are for believable amounts and just get paid and never queried.
Yes, the amount is so ridiculous that it should have been double-checked, but there is no reason to believe that the figures appeared in HMRC's systems out of nowhere.
.
I strongly suspect that Mr Yeoman is more than likely a victim of his own carelessness, not anyone within HMRC.
Yes, the amount is so ridiculous that it should have been double-checked, but there is no reason to believe that the figures appeared in HMRC's systems out of nowhere.
Point conceded - if this is an error made by the taxpayer then it is just a failure to sense check.
Re: Priceless
The look on his face when the bill arrived must have been priceless!
It's such a large amount that it's obvious it's an error, and probably quite funny (at least at first). But if it was just a few thousand out, and still within the range of being realistic, it would probably be more concerning.
Data entry
One of mine recently received a water bill for c£150,000 on a two bed flat. Reason? Unmetered property, rateable value, decimal point in wrong place.