Just need to let off steam on this - two clients both partners in the same business. Trading now ceased so need to cancel Class 2 for both partners. Rang the agent helpline - they cannot help with class 2 NI - need to ring number on NI demand notices. Steam starting to puff out of my ears already ... OK got myself a coffee anticipating long wait - got through to automated call screening - gave details and whey hey! I got through to a human within a couple of minutes. Gave details was given advice - HMRC officer was reading from the guidance on his screen. Asked if I could give details for the other partner - er No you can't you have to ring back - our call logging system now only allows us to deal with one issue per call. What!!!!....Okaaaay.... called back went through the screening again, got put on hold, but to be fair it got answered reasonably quickly - same set of circumstances, same questions, but I got a different response from that given by the previous HMRC officer. When I questioned it I was more or less told that I had to decide which bit of advice I took. What is happening at HMRC???!!! If fairly simple issues are dealt with in different ways by HMRC officers what hope does anyone have of getting it right! Also why should my clients have to pay for the extra time I have to spend ringing back HMRC when I need to deal with more than one issue when previously I could get it all sorted in one call. Ludicrous!
Rant over - thankyou for letting me get that off my chest.
Replies (11)
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there there
go and have a cup of tea and a chockie biscuit - you may have calmed down . I find it works a treat - having a good rant here does as well
I'd have written in
In those circumstances I'd have written in and told the client to cancel their direct debit.
Get client to do it
I usually let clients deal with these little things from now on, too many grey hairs appearing for me to keep dealing with minor matters requiring HMRC contact. Or just fire off a letter and tell client to cancel DD, much less stressful.
Cancel the direct debit
You can write as often as you like, but it will nearly always be ignored.
But if you cancel the direct debit, that will provoke action and you can then explain why.
Coding out
Take care with stopping the DD - I have always advocated this in the past as it's one thing that grab's HMRC attention!
However, from April 2014 HMRC may code out alleged NIC 2 arrears.
I have always preferred to write to NICO and get the DD stopped at the bank - but if HMRC won't update (or are slow at updating) their systems for the no longer accruing class 2 NIC liability then taxpayers under PAYE should be on the look out for reduced PAYE codes robbing them of class 2 NIC not owed as of April 2014 onwards.
Online form
For future reference, there is an online form to inform HMRC of the cessation of self employment - it deals with both tax and Class 2 NIC.
To be fair...
They have made it relatively clear here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/dealingwith/changes/close-sell-business.htm and here: https://www.gov.uk/stop-being-self-employed
I't just a shame they didn;t make you aware of it before, or refer you to it when you phoned.
Eh
... forms take time to fill in ...
But when you phone up you are just talking to someone who is just filling in the online form for you.
As practice software matures, and HMRC systems improve, there will be fewer and fewer 'niggly queries', and you will simply 'push a button' to notify them that your client has ceased trading, saving everyone time. If HMRC have done something to improve the system, even if it's a small improvement like this, I think it should be recognised.
Disclaimer: I'm not in practice, so probably have less direct contact with HMRC than you