Hello all,
Long time reader, first time poster. Fairly new to practice but not the profession.
I know this is similar to the query about the small income but it is slightly different as HMRC will have the missing info.
Lovely client denied existence of P45 before we submitted his SA (he does sporadic work) and now he has given it to us (bless). He has paid his tax and there is no additional payment required (ie no loss to HMRC).
Should we let HMRC know or resubmit? I wouldn't bother normally but they will have the P60 and it is not on the return ie return is incomplete. Are HMRC going to notice I wonder, it is £500 tax and his total income is pretty low.
Thanks.
Betty
Replies (10)
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Amend return. Easily and quickly done. With 300 clients we always have a sprinkling of those that have "forgotten" odd amounts. Better to get it correct.
As above, amend. Otherwise, your client has filed an inaccurate Return, and as you highlight yourself, HMRC have this information, anyway. A cursory glance by any HMRC officer and wham. S9A time.
Much better avoided with a two minute amendment.
As the op said this
"He has paid his tax and there is no additional payment required (ie no loss to HMRC)"
would HMRC really bother with an enquiry for no yield? It might make them look closer at the return overall but surely not just to get the PAYE included if there was no tax loss?
Of course the op may not have factored everything in and including the income could increase the overall liability even if at first glance it appears sufficient tax has been paid per the P45
I would still amend the return though.
Except it's an offense to knowingly file or fail to correct an incorrect Return. Are you advocating advising to commit an offense?
Not at all, I said I would amend the return.
But was questioning whether, if there was in fact no tax* loss, HMRC would start an enquiry purely to get the PAYE income on the return?
*tax, student loan,HICBC etc
OK. If HMRC identify a discrepancy they will (subject to staff these days) open an enquiry. They may decide there is no risk and no tax lost, and close the enquiry immediately without ever writing out, or they may decide to go the whole hog and ask for everything.
It will largely come down to the officer tasked with reviewing it.
"They may decide there is no risk and no tax lost, and close the enquiry immediately without ever writing out"
That sounds like the HMRC version of if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound!
If there's no S9A letter sent to the taxpayer is it an enquiry??
Funnily enough, I had one of these a couple of months ago.
Client forgot about a short term employment which he had, taxed at 20% flat. We sent his return in and HMRC sent out an amendment with this omitted £1200 + £240 tax, amending his tax bill by £0.00.
Obviously not always going to be the case, but I was surprised the computer bothered to send this one out. But computers can't think, can they ?