SA Final Reminders

I have also been contacted by an elderly client who paid her SA in December 2011 and it is showing on her online account, yet she received a final demand for the same amount dated 10 February 2012.

I was unaware that this is a known problem.  Have HMR&C commissioned HAL 9000 as their computer?  Surely simple errors like this can be avoided and surely cannot be blamed on computer error.  Or is this a scheme to make elderly taxpayers pay twice??

If it is a known problem then HMRC should check manually before sending any reminders.

Can you imagine if we submitted a tax return which was incorrect and when HMRC chased us we told them "it's a known problem"?

I deal with the submission of monthly CIS returns. Client receives letter dated 30 December 2011 issued by "PAYE HOPPER E W" which clearly states "You missed the deadline for filing your contractor's monthly return" in bold black type. Next to this is a red box with white print reading "You have missed your deadline" The letter goes on to say penalties will continue to be charged if all the outstanding returns are not submitted.

Needless to say all returns have been submitted on time and the CIS tax paid.

My client was most perturbed and effectively said I had not been submitting his returns. Spoke with HMRC who said - yes, you've guessed it, it is a known problem and the letter should be ignored. He checked my client's record and admitted that nothing was outstanding

It was only after I insisted that a letter of apology be sent my client, which they did, did my client believe all was in order.

What, I wonder, would be the position if, due to this, I had lost my client? Could I sue HMRC for negligence?

Having e mailed this to our local Working Together co-ordinator, she has just come back to advisng that it is a known issue:

"We have recently been made aware that SA359 (Payment Reminder) may have been issued to some customers who have paid their 2010/11 balancing payment on time. This problem has arisen because payments received on the 14 to 16th December, although credited to the correct customer accounts, were not allocated to outstanding charges until after the reminders had been selected for issue.

Those credits have since been allocated to the charges prior to the February SA Statement run, and you can therefore ignore the demand and give this explanation to your client. "

I do not understand the explanation!  How can money be allocated to an SA account and not clear a charge?

Should I send this to the Daily Mail?

I just picked up news from a firm called TWP which reports: "A glitch in the tax office’s computer system means letters demanding a penalty fee for late tax returns has been sent out in error to thousands of homes across the UK.

I really think that, as customers, we should change our supplier.