It is a total minefield, you read various articles on the website, think you have an understanding of what you are claiming/filing. Years later the HMRC decides to investigate and decides you have done something wrong, they update their website in the meantime and claim the rule has always been clearly defined and they ask you where you took advice to file the particular element. If you always need to check with a professional then there shouldn't be self-assessment.. Tax is not simple at all.
@@darrenb1522 you basically are forced to pay an accountant and usually with accountants you still have to do a lot of leg work they don't make it all that easy
I remember when I first started contracting, I hadn't even started any contracts and HMRC said based on my earnings I owed £250, plus interest. I wrote to them to state I hadn't even done any work, but they said pay what's owed or incur more fines. Turned out in my previous job I had over paid on my tax and got £4k back. That'll learn them. What annoyed me more was they treat you like a criminal and the tone in their letters is diabolical and damn right offensive.
About 20 years ago I was self employed and they gave me 2 tax references, that took years to sort out and they kept asking me to do everything twice! I went into a tax office to sort this out (I was owed a substantial rebate!) and it was a shambles! For every question they asked they already had the information but I had to put it in a form. I asked why did I need to do this to an old gray civil servant and he replied that since the government started self assessment in 1995 / 1996 we don't do that anymore you have to. I replied that this must have been a terrible time to work there, he looked at me puzzled and asked "why?" I replied that "if we were now doing the work lots of his colleagues must have got sacked". He said "no why would they?" "Well we're now doing the work". I'll never forget this conversation and it's a great illustration of how awful the system is.
I'm going through this right now actually. Two years ago my partner and I started a business, and we were given two UTR numbers. Our returns have been submitted under one, but I'm still getting penalties for late submission exceeding £1200 for the other. I refuse to pay it. My accountant is apparently dealing with it after making HMRC aware of it, but I've been waiting for four months for their response 🙈
I'm an accountant and need to speak to HMRC on a regular basis. Largely it's not a good experience. Their systems are very antiquated and they don't talk between departments, e.g. PAYE doesn't always pass on info to Self-assessment. I agree with you on cheques. Even if we request they pay a client a refund by BACS (and put the details on their tax return), they will still send a cheque. It also depends on who you get on the end of the phone. Sometimes they're brilliant and extremely helpful. Other times they give completely incorrect advice, or simply don't tell us one important step which delays a matter. Speak to a new person, they tell you something else. Other times I'll be told that they will transfer me, then they just cut me off! Accountants have an Agent Helpline. Around 2017 we would get through to an HMRC adviser within thirty seconds. Now? Lucky if we're answered after half and hour. And yes, I have to listen to that hold music several times a week! I've even written a piece of classical piano music based on it on my channel!
I worked for HMC&E (as was) in the nineties. They were depressed and incompetent enough back then. Think about how opaque the system looks via the helpline, then realise it's likely just as opaque for the poor bastards working inside HMRC.
I am an accountant who used to have to deal with royalty taxes as I worked for publishers. We also had a tax team (for some reason they didn’t deal with royalty tax), and apparently the company had underpaid PAYE, owing around £200k, and without telling us, the HMRC moved all the money we have been paying into royalty tax to fill in the shortfall of the PAYE tax, and then issued a letter and a fine to my department saying that we must pay royalty tax, and the tax team gave me shit for this, and when I actually found out what was happening (took me weeks) they never apologised and still had the pay the fine. Lol
Can agree with the person above. Have never had an issue cashing a cheque using a banking app. I bank with Lloyds, Natwest, FirstDirect, Halifax and Barclays that have options to remotely deposit cheques on the app, from what I can see Chase and Nationwide dont. I would be walking down to the bank in the rain to get my pennies otherwise as its mine! Its obvious why they do it, it is to disincentivise people from claiming their own money... Want your money? Jump through some whoops of it - knowing full well some people wont be bothered.
This video is so important and is full of fantastic HMRC facts! It feels appropriate to donate some money to this video so it adds to Damiens future tax return!
In your last video you mentioned higher rate taxpayers, pension contributions and "relief at source". One tax return later I'm owed £1,800 back and I've sent off a letter asking for another £5k from the three previous years. Thank you so much for pointing it out and please keep up the good work.
Did you use an accountant to do it? I have variable income and want to figure out how much i should put into a sipp this year to claim the full amount back as well as back claiming for the past few years. I'll have to do a self assessment for this first time this year so thinking i might get an accountant to help me for the first year at least
I managed to do it myself but it was a battle, I had to do a lot of digging to establish that (I think!) you can only claim the higher rate for pensions for the most recent tax year and going back further involves sending a letter. In retrospect I wish I'd thrown a few quid to an accountant to do this every year since I crossed the higher rate line; there's no doubt it would have paid for itself...
I wish my tax returns went that way. I'm currently in a single income house hold but due to the high rate tax threshold my wife claims £1,880 in child tax allowance and I have to pay back £1,800. But I won't let the tax man away with that £80 to save me the tax return.
Me: You've taken ££££s more in taxes than you should have. HMRC: Put in a claim. Me: I have. How long will it take to process? HMRC: It may not be processed within your lifetime. Me: Anything I can do? HMRC: Nope. Tough luck. More fool you for trusting the system. 🤷♂
Sven didn't go to prison. It just shows if your rich enough HMRC is just something to be ignored. If you have a modest income and underpay by £1k you better just hand it over as the fines are 10% of the amount owed and don't want to be dealing with threats on your credit history etc.
When I was between jobs, my monthly income increased which meant that I didn't pay enough tax, I owed £240. I rang up to see if I could just pay it off instead of them messing with my tax code. 5 hours over the space of a few days, and in the end they guy on the phone said no I can't I just need to have my tax code changed and I need to pay it off slowly thought-out the year. I then mentioned I was expecting a pay rise, so my tax repayment would be too much, he then said HMRC will give you a tax rebate. This is long winded and expensive. I talked to a father-in-law how is a tax manager and said I was correct and should be able to pay it off and said to file a complaint, I did and never heard back. The tax rules and navigating HMRC is too complex and time consuming.
I did exactly as you suggested, paid it off as a "voluntary payment" filled in a form along with a cheque (thier preference not mine). Almost 2 months later still they changed my tax code and told me to wait a further 30 days ontop of that for it to show. Eventually it seemed to show on thier "system" but no record on my personal online tax account, only the record on my bank statement that the cheque had been accepted. Shambles
@@aaronmicalowe Funny you say that. I'm currently applying for jobs in US. 3x the salary with less taxes, comparable living costs to London, healthcare through employer and is $50 a month (compared to ~£300 NI in UK). Man the UK is absolutely and utterly behind.
@@DrTFW1 I still get full healthcare for free, so I don't have to worry about remortgaging a house to stay alive. But I would prefer to be in a job, which gets less likely every day.
you don't have to you just believe u do i sure didnt sighn a binding contract did you ? last time i checked if there is no binding contract then there isnt anyone to pay and if they take it its theft i demand all service providers to provide me with an invoice they wont give you one because doing so would bound a contract between me and the goverment and they would then be liable by law to what is spent amd borrowed wich means they can be sued
I once spent countless hours on the phone to HMRC to tell them they had mis calculated my tax. I spoke to 4 people who disagreed with me despite me showing them the simple mistake that had been made. I eventually spoke to someone who could do basic maths and thought that was that. 3 years later, they sent me a bill for 3k, which again was wrong. It eventually got sorted after 4 years and probably 10 phonecalls over a simple mis calculation.
Similar happened to me. I've always been on top of my codes and when my employer made a mistake on their declarations I got penalised and it was a simple thing to work out but it took years to finally work out because they only rectify things at the end of tax year, stupidly...
They rely on the fact that it's complicated enough to deter taxpayers from making an effort to claim. And after watching this video, it looks like it's paying off handsomely for HMRC
My partner and I left the UK nearly 9 years ago now and we haven't been tax payers there for about 8 years. We told HMRC when we left and filed a final return. We received a letter from them late last year saying my partner owed them $2k in late filing penalties for not filing his tax returns! Having to then call them all the way from New Zealand and explain to them we haven't been tax payers in the country for 8 years....and we told them that when we left, it was a nightmare. I do not miss all the crappy red tape over there. Last time I tried you have to physically go into the bank to close your account - physically impossible if you are on the other side of the world. In NZ you can open and close bank accounts just by sending the bank a secure message in your internet banking. IRD (equivalent to HMRC) also automatically refund any tax into your bank account as long as you have provided one....miles ahead of the UK HMRC.
You have to file an annual self assessment even if you're not resident or paying tax in the UK. It's foolish of you for not finding out the rules before you left the country.
My partner is from NZ and came to the UK, she informed them she was moving and needed access to her cash in the UK. They refused all her attempts to withdraw money despite being told it would be allowed and also wouldn't close the account until she came into branch. I can promise you the UK isn't the only one with red tape.
@@psammiad Nope..don`t give tax advice when you don`t have a clue what you are talking about. You have to do one and as long as you don`t have a tax liability from it..thats you done, your UTR goes inactive until you inform them you are in a position to pay tax again.
I spent a short time as a self-employed person and learned more from a mate about what could and couldn’t be claimed. However, he had the best story I’ve come across as he had a visit from a Tax Officer. During the visit, the TO visited the toilet. That same toilet had recently been fitted in the office and had been claimed for in the Return that my mate had submitted. The TO said that it was not exclusive to the business and could have been used outside office hours. I think the TO’s argument was undermined by the fact that my mate said he was not exactly able to take it home with him… Really well put together, Damien. I enjoyed the props. I think the OHP was worth the 3 hour trip. (I assume you’ll be claiming that as a legitimate business expense…)
You got to appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into this video to highlight the problem without being boring, this deserves a Oscar, great video very entertaining 👍
Plus they might have to actually think about something other than what they are going to have for dinner that night and what's on the box. All absolute baboons.
Ive worked as a security contractor for HMRC , they have hardly any staff in the offices and the staff who answer the phones fo on endless smoke breaks and dont answer the phones. The senior people work maybe a day a week in the offices.
HMRC definitely needs rebuilding. They tried to drag me into a court case against an large accountancy firm I used to use, HMRC were looking at years 2018-2020. I stopped using the accountancy in March 2018, so only three months of the three year period. They ASSUMED I was still a customer and claimed I owed thousands in tax for the full three years. They didn't even do the most basic of due diligence. The court case is going to fail, as they're trying to apply a court win they had to other businesses - it's nowhere near the same circumstances, and from my experience they can't even do the basics of an investigation. It's going to fail and it will be our tax payer money wasted. I wonder if I can do a FOIA request to find out how much HMRC spend on court cases they lose every year, I expect the figure is not pretty.
HMRC ended up charging me late fees for an amount I had already paid but had got “stuck” in their system and was therefore not linked to my account. The first time I found out about this was when I got a threatening letter through from third party debt collectors. Over the course of 4 months I rang over 10 times, only got through to them 4 times and in all of those occasions were told it should be sorted now. The final person I spoke to ended up just telling me to pay the late fees which were still accruing interest to stop them from going up and then I would receive a refund. I did and I’ve never heard back from HMRC and I still occasionally get letters from debt collectors. I was a small business earning less than £50k and I am in the process of shutting down the company for no other reason than the stress HMRC have caused. The state of the current tax system means we are at the point where unless you can afford a full time in house bookkeeper / accountant, you can’t operate a business.
Cheques are a security risk. I took my mums cheque book by accident and filled out one for £50 to a friend with MY NAME and Signature and Santander CLEARED IT!
Just because a check clears doesnt necessarily mean that you will have the money though. Sometimes the initial check is cleared/accepted and then at a later date when it is verified false and then the money that you “received” disappears. Kind of in a similar way to the recent US chase bank run. You don’t actually get the money, this is due to a multitude of reasons including settlement times etc. I doubt it would have stayed cleared if you left it long enough, if it did then thats truly worrying and there has been some fault in the system
@_Hollie_ ahhh, I didn't know that. We made Santander aware of the situation as soon as we'd figured out what had happened and they took the money back from my friend, and I re issued it using my cheque book. So I'll never know if they'd have verified it of their own accord.
Anything up to 500 isn't checked. You could write Mickey mouse on the cheque and if it was under 500 it would be processed. I know this because I worked on cheque clearing systems back in the day
Last year I was sent a letter saying I had to fill a self assesment. I have never done it before and the letter said it had to be done before the 31st of Jan or within 3 months, whatever was later. I did it one of the last days of Jan and only a couple of days after receiving the letter and when I finished it said I had to pay, but the total to pay was 0. One week later I went in to check and to my surprise I was told I had to pay X money plus interest because of late payment. I called them and they told me since I was late, they could not do anything. Not only I did it on time according to the letter I was sent, when I finished the self assesment, the total to pay was 0 and there was no option to pay anyway. Had I not checked the website again, I would accrued a higher interest.
Damien this year after rules changes means I fall under the need to submit a self assessment. But since I get benefits from employer I found it hard to determine if I still need to submit a self assessment. I did the quiz and this wasn’t included in the criteria. I had to call 3 times and speak to 3 different hmrc agents to find out that I didn’t. But it was too late I was told to submit a sa1 form which didn’t even have the benefit listed I have - private healthcare. So now I got to wait for my profile to update and then call them for the 4th time to get self assessment removed. The third agent I spoke to was unsure and went and spoke to a tax technician and informed me benefits under 2500£ on p11d don’t need to be claimed. My issue is amount of agents who don’t care giving right advice. My tax code has also changed 2 times 23-24 but salary hasn’t changed April it’s so odd.
Can you use an EU biometric one. Genuine question for someone I know. Registering with the Government Gateway using a U.K. Passport and a Driving Licence was difficult enough.
I submitted a tax return in 8 July 2024, and checked around mid-Aug how long it would take - the HMRC website mentioned "You should have received a reply by 15 August 2024". I did not!. Early Sep, still no update, so I called - waited an hour on the phone to be told 'security checks may take another 8-12 weeks "call back 12 weeks the original after the submitted date". I waited and waited, not wanting to have to make the dreadful call/wait again, no updates forthcoming. So I called early Nov. "Security check still ongoing", WTF! I questioned the issue, explained I'd been waiting since July, and requested an escalation. The operator asked me to "wait a moment", when she returned 10 minutes later, security checks were cleared and ready to process payment. I had to provide bank details all over again (no idea why they couldn't use them from the system, as I had already entered - I did ask). I was told payment would take 14-days after more security checks, which was about right. I did not get paid any interest!
Damien this is such a great video. You should look into tax codes in the NHS - it's an absolute hidden nightmare of payroll teams demanding that our doctors owe them huge sums of money because the tax code system is so complicated, and because of shift work, night shifts, changing hospitals constantly and moving between pay brackets, the payroll team gets it wrong ALL the time. Causes huge amount of stress for the frontline workers.
I have an aversion to employing an accountant because if they do something I’m not aware of, I’m the one carrying the can. That’s not a good situation to be in.
If you use a reputable accountant the contract should include insurance for mistakes they make. You can check if they are registered with ICAEW or a charter tax institute. Also relying on an accountant who makes a mistake does give you some defence against penalties. Not complete immunity, but some mitigation.
I have applied for the Marriage Allowance for the first time this year. I stay home with my son, but I also started a small business, so I had to fill out a self assessment for the first time. Since I didn't earn much last year, I decided to give it a go, see if it's actually worth it. I could have applied years ago, but to be honest, I was afraid I'm not eligible and I'll pay more tax that I should, but also I had no idea how to claim.. I'm a foreigner, and I find UKs tax system much easier than in my home country. There everything is still on paper, websites are much more complicated than you've shown on the video, and they're written in a language, that an average tax payer truly doesn't understand without hiring a professional... Despite all the cons you mention in your video, and despite I agree with most of them, I believe that the UK has quite easy processes and they're not as hard to understand as elsewhere (at least where I come from).
The OHP 😂😂 This almost tops the Art Attack pasta frame. All good info etc etc, but Damo the lengths you go to for a joke is one of the best things about this channel.
Easy unless over the limit imposed by the bank, I’ve had to regularly send cheques through the post for vat refunds . This after paying for software each month to pay tax digitally- demanded by HMRC so absolutely shocking to get a paper check back!
Set up a Personal Tax Account! It’s the easiest way to make changes, ask for tax code change, update benefits in kind and self-assessment. Also remember it is your personal responsibility to inform HMRC of changes, not your employer. I learnt the hard way with huge amounts of stress and swore I would never let HMRC do me over again.
Mate, I remember sliding a blank cheque inside a small printer in a retail store, and watch that bad boy print the amount and details on it, then have the customer sign it and keep it in the till. Good old 90s.
I remember working in a pub in 2005 and our entire telephone system went down; we had no idea what to do and then a customer randomly said it was so much easier when those carbon print machines were used (where you put the credit card in a skid something over the top). The landlord ran out of the room and came back two minutes later with two working credit card machines, so we used them for the rest of the day. They saved our whole business that day.
I arranged a UFPLS withdrawal for my wife from her SIPP a few months ago, exactly calculated so that she would pay no tax in this tax year, taking into account the 25% tax free lump sum element. HMRC changed her tax code to 1257X (emergency tax code) and swiped about £4K of it despite her tax dashboard showing that no tax will be payable. To get this tax back we called them and had to fill out an online claim form which they didn’t acknowledge and seem to have no knowledge of. Each step of this process involved waiting nearly an hour before being put through to some dopey sounding person with a Welsh accent who had no knowledge of the case and rerouted the call round in circles until it was dropped. I have now given up chasing this money and accept that we will have to wait until April to file a self assessment and recover it that way. In future my UFPLS planning will assume the tax free bit will be stolen by HMRC until they deign to give it back, so delay UFPLS withdrawals until just before April. Very strange system. I assumed that the 25% tax free bit would be handed over immediately and not even seen by HMRC. Wonder if they will pay interest on it? Probably not…
HMRC owe me £3000 , from over paid VAT and a fine that I paid because they wrongly claimed I hadn't paid said VAT, they refuse to refund me despite me proving they made a mistake, my only option is to hire a lawyer, which will likely cost me more than £3000 and I worry that going that route will also cause them to look into my affairs deeper, I don't think I have done anything wrong but I also didn't think I owed them money and look how that turned out....they have all the power and no accountability
you can use your banking app to scan your cheques to deposit them, no need to go into branch. simple, HSBC lets you do it for example, not sure about others
I hate HMRC, its always a one sided deal, 'We want' I got arrested for a thing a company I worked with did, the reason for the arrest, they couldn't get a hold of me as I worked away from home. Turned out the wee weasel broke the rules to get me in front of him, but by the time I found that out, has was gone for 'other issues' But time and time again they have behaved terribly and that's ME a PAYE worker I do not and cannot sort my taxes my company does, I am not self employed just like the millions of us hard working souls 'I get taxed to death' I get no, tax schemes no lower taxes, no claims for ANYTHING do we get anymore. Its wrong and its immoral.
A friend of mines work was being absorbed into the health trust here in the North of Ireland. I dont know specifics but for some reason it menat hed be on an emergency tax code for like 2 weeks or something. Turns out 4 months later he realises hes never been taken fof emergency tax and was paying full rates with Zero personal allowance. And to no ones suprise HMRC said "Sorry, our bad but we CANNOT issue you a refund until the next tax year" The systems a shambles
Them: you owe us Me: how much? Them: you tell me? Me: i dunno, i didnt keep track Them: well we know how much, but you tell us how much? Me: id say £500? Hmrc: Wrong! Now you go prison. Do not pass go... do not collect universal credits
I owe them 160 quid because they failed to keep track. My jobs supposed to do it for me, I dislike it being like that and I'd love to learn to do it myself but HMRC are so vague and I believe its on purpose to keep us "in check" so to speak.
I am an accountant who used to have to deal with royalty taxes as I worked for publishers. We also had a tax team (for some reason they didn’t deal with royalty tax), and apparently the company had underpaid PAYE, owing around £200k, and without telling us, the HMRC moved all the money we have been paying into royalty tax to fill in the shortfall of the PAYE tax, and then issued a letter and a fine to my department saying that we must pay royalty tax, and the tax team gave me shit for this, and when I actually found out what was happening (took me weeks) they never apologised and still had the pay the fine. Lol.
I recently got a cheque from HMRC, after waiting a very long time. It was for a large enough amount I had to go to a bank branch, which meant finding a bank branch (my local ones had closed).
You say this because there are a few issues with the country. But all countries have issues and yes we have issues in the UK but it's still one of the best countries to live in worldwide. I lived in NZ for a year and I loved it but it was missing something that the UK just fulfills for me. No place like it in the world I have found.
@FrozenDung Thank goodness there is no other place like the UK in the world - bonded to both the parasite elite class and monarchy. And forever now the loyal lapdog of the Yanks…
I got an angry letter in the mail saying I had unpaid taxes and HMRC has been trying to contact me about them. Turns out I was 4 months late, and this was the first time they had contacted me! No texts, no emails, no nothing. It's not even on the landing page of my tax account. I had to pay a big chunk of interest, and I'm mad because this is definitely intentional. It could have been avoided by just contacting me at any point! I've ran a business for a while, so I know how to do it. I just stupidly assumed I'd get some kind of reminder if I was doing anything wrong.
Yes, but that's not HMRC's doing, that comes directly from successive governments deciding to allow fiscal drag (wage inflation not being matched by tax bracket inflation) to do the job of raising taxes for them while allowing them to claim they haven't raised taxes...
I'm on PAYE but still owe HMRC £6500 due to an error they made! They put me on the wrong tax code for 18 months, despite my tax bracket not changing year on year. Not only do I owe the previous year's unpaid additional tax of £6500, but for the last six months of this tax year I've been paying off the additional required tax from the first 6 months. That's been quite a monthly hit and I'm fortunate to be able to handle it (plus I manage my finances well). They are bloated, incompetent and hard to deal with. Only once have I spoken with an advisor who explained clearly and was personable. Then there's the fact tax brackets don't shift with inflation, don't get me started on that!
That’s why I always say that filling your tax affairs shouldn’t require a degree or even an accountant. Government wants this money, it should work hard to arrange all the necessary tools for it, so it is easy and quick to do so.
So I do have some insight into HMRC's working. Whilst I don't know the full story, what they have mentioned is that they are going through a massive modernisation upgrade and the hope is that this new system is a stepping stone to all the things you are advocating for, but that the system built in the 90s needs to be slowly upgraded whilst making sure it still works throughout. Taxes can't have an outage so it's a slow, careful, delicate upgrade.
It’s most likely just that cheques are an outdated technology that is difficult to phase out at the scale of HMRC The money is accounted for and designated for the people who haven’t claimed it so there’s no way HMRC could embezzle that money as you imply
Bitcoin is going to zero with all the other musical chair coins. Bitcoin like all crypto is the very thing that everyone wants to have sold before the music stops.
There’s a couple of good things they do. Like you can click pay for your self assessment in the HMRC app, and it will open your bank app with the details pre-filled out
Counterpoint: our system is infinitely better than the hellscape the Americans have to deal with. I, for one, quite enjoy doing my self assessment each year, but I understand that I'm in the minority.
My mum waited 9 months for a tax refund because she isn't able to get a tax account online - you need a UK passport or driving licence. She has neither so has to face that call music so often. Moving to a purely digital system is going to further exclude so many people until they simplify their systems.
Great video, I particularly liked your point on others opinions of 'just fill out your tax on time' backing up the point you can't expect everyone to know the ins and outs of self employed tax law particularly when starting out.
Too many rules means excess numbers of nit so bright civil servants to muddle your tax affairs.This is beneficial only to accountants who can unravel the chaos caused.
Complexity creates contradictions, ambiguity and wiggle room. Easier for those who's job it is to find Loopholes and create Fee's and Fines. Just look at some of our Laws LOL.
If the money owed to you is more than a days wages, take a sunny day off work, make a packed lunch and a flask, and call hmrc from the beach. They are stuck in an office, and your going to be paid knowing your day is so much better than theirs. Good luck everyone 👍
I've done my own tax return for about 25 years now, every June get my P60 and my wife picks a Saturday, hides my car keys , my console controller and then locks the doors! She then makes us sit there until the god awful things are done online, it takes 90s mins and three tax returns all done. I always just leave them HMRC to just sort anything out through my tax code. I have a main job and registered legal partnership in sideline business with my wife. I can't understand why people leave it to the last minute, the second you have your P60 and other paperwork, just do the bloody thing and get it over with!!
Not tax related, but it took me five years and three complaints to get my Class 2 voluntary national insurance paid up to speed so I have a state pension. Barclays cancelled the DD in 2017 because no money had gone out on it, so I called up HMRC and they confirmed that it had been paid, albeit for the wrong amount! The people I talked to at HMRC through their complaints procedure were "at a loss to explain" why the direct debit had never been collected, and I now have to use freakin' giros and bank transfers to make sure that I get a state pension.
Damian, having been the person who designs how big public and private organisations work - bureaucracies on the scale of HMRC are very challenging to change. Often the private sector isn’t much better, it’s just got more money. It’s actually a really interesting topic in itself.
I live in the Isle of Man. My first year in work I had no idea how to do a tax return so I went to the tax office and a lady sat down and went through it with me and I filed it there and then. I explained I’m dyslexic and she was really helpful explaining each question showing what I could claim and what I couldn’t. When I opened a brokerage account I rang up the tax office, got straight through with no wait. She told me about how each type security is taxed and how to do my return. We also only have two tax codes and you can’t claim back the interest on your mortgage which nice 👌🏻
Could you do a video on how exactly to claim back additional tax relief on a SIPP please. I think this would be really useful to a lot of people. Thanks..
I'd completely forgotten to go back and check (as they say to wait 3 days before even checking to see if you have a refund). Similar nice surprise waiting for me too. Thankyou @DamienTalksMoney Subbed & I'll put a bit extra in the RNLI charity box next time I pass that way.
I started my own business in 2020 and it's a minefield.. and that's running a company with no staff! Reddit has been more helpful than HMRC.
An accountant is worth their weight in truffle.
It is a total minefield, you read various articles on the website, think you have an understanding of what you are claiming/filing.
Years later the HMRC decides to investigate and decides you have done something wrong, they update their website in the meantime and claim the rule has always been clearly defined and they ask you where you took advice to file the particular element. If you always need to check with a professional then there shouldn't be self-assessment.. Tax is not simple at all.
It's designed to put people off working for life. What a stupid, broken system.
What Reddit forums do you suggest pretty please x
@@darrenb1522 you basically are forced to pay an accountant and usually with accountants you still have to do a lot of leg work they don't make it all that easy
I remember when I first started contracting, I hadn't even started any contracts and HMRC said based on my earnings I owed £250, plus interest. I wrote to them to state I hadn't even done any work, but they said pay what's owed or incur more fines. Turned out in my previous job I had over paid on my tax and got £4k back. That'll learn them. What annoyed me more was they treat you like a criminal and the tone in their letters is diabolical and damn right offensive.
When I was contracting and registered for VAT I got a VAT bill before I'd even submitted a VAT return. God knows how they calculated it
you need an accountant
@@benjamingriffith4991 I had an accountant. That's how I found out the HMRC owed me money and not the other way round. 👍
@@benjamingriffith4991 accountant, lawyer and financial advisor xD
About 20 years ago I was self employed and they gave me 2 tax references, that took years to sort out and they kept asking me to do everything twice! I went into a tax office to sort this out (I was owed a substantial rebate!) and it was a shambles! For every question they asked they already had the information but I had to put it in a form. I asked why did I need to do this to an old gray civil servant and he replied that since the government started self assessment in 1995 / 1996 we don't do that anymore you have to. I replied that this must have been a terrible time to work there, he looked at me puzzled and asked "why?" I replied that "if we were now doing the work lots of his colleagues must have got sacked". He said "no why would they?"
"Well we're now doing the work".
I'll never forget this conversation and it's a great illustration of how awful the system is.
I'm going through this right now actually. Two years ago my partner and I started a business, and we were given two UTR numbers. Our returns have been submitted under one, but I'm still getting penalties for late submission exceeding £1200 for the other. I refuse to pay it. My accountant is apparently dealing with it after making HMRC aware of it, but I've been waiting for four months for their response 🙈
I'm an accountant and need to speak to HMRC on a regular basis. Largely it's not a good experience. Their systems are very antiquated and they don't talk between departments, e.g. PAYE doesn't always pass on info to Self-assessment. I agree with you on cheques. Even if we request they pay a client a refund by BACS (and put the details on their tax return), they will still send a cheque. It also depends on who you get on the end of the phone. Sometimes they're brilliant and extremely helpful. Other times they give completely incorrect advice, or simply don't tell us one important step which delays a matter. Speak to a new person, they tell you something else.
Other times I'll be told that they will transfer me, then they just cut me off!
Accountants have an Agent Helpline. Around 2017 we would get through to an HMRC adviser within thirty seconds. Now? Lucky if we're answered after half and hour.
And yes, I have to listen to that hold music several times a week! I've even written a piece of classical piano music based on it on my channel!
I worked for HMC&E (as was) in the nineties. They were depressed and incompetent enough back then. Think about how opaque the system looks via the helpline, then realise it's likely just as opaque for the poor bastards working inside HMRC.
I am an accountant who used to have to deal with royalty taxes as I worked for publishers. We also had a tax team (for some reason they didn’t deal with royalty tax), and apparently the company had underpaid PAYE, owing around £200k, and without telling us, the HMRC moved all the money we have been paying into royalty tax to fill in the shortfall of the PAYE tax, and then issued a letter and a fine to my department saying that we must pay royalty tax, and the tax team gave me shit for this, and when I actually found out what was happening (took me weeks) they never apologised and still had the pay the fine. Lol
Half an hour wait on the Agent Line? 60 minutes is nearer the mark, especially on Mondays.
Some banking apps only require you to take a photo of a cheque
Can agree with the person above. Have never had an issue cashing a cheque using a banking app.
I bank with Lloyds, Natwest, FirstDirect, Halifax and Barclays that have options to remotely deposit cheques on the app, from what I can see Chase and Nationwide dont.
I would be walking down to the bank in the rain to get my pennies otherwise as its mine! Its obvious why they do it, it is to disincentivise people from claiming their own money...
Want your money? Jump through some whoops of it - knowing full well some people wont be bothered.
I have a current account open solely for this purpose
When Covid hit, I started just using the banking App to pay in cheques and most of the time it work perfectly.
Llyods does this, and its super simply
To be fair, I think that is most banking apps today
This video is so important and is full of fantastic HMRC facts!
It feels appropriate to donate some money to this video so it adds to Damiens future tax return!
You legend! Thank you so much for this.
In your last video you mentioned higher rate taxpayers, pension contributions and "relief at source". One tax return later I'm owed £1,800 back and I've sent off a letter asking for another £5k from the three previous years. Thank you so much for pointing it out and please keep up the good work.
Love this! Congrats on the unexpected windfall
@@DamienTalksMoney I hope you take a lot of pride in the help you give people, I don't think you realise just how much of a difference you make.
Did you use an accountant to do it? I have variable income and want to figure out how much i should put into a sipp this year to claim the full amount back as well as back claiming for the past few years. I'll have to do a self assessment for this first time this year so thinking i might get an accountant to help me for the first year at least
I managed to do it myself but it was a battle, I had to do a lot of digging to establish that (I think!) you can only claim the higher rate for pensions for the most recent tax year and going back further involves sending a letter. In retrospect I wish I'd thrown a few quid to an accountant to do this every year since I crossed the higher rate line; there's no doubt it would have paid for itself...
I wish my tax returns went that way. I'm currently in a single income house hold but due to the high rate tax threshold my wife claims £1,880 in child tax allowance and I have to pay back £1,800. But I won't let the tax man away with that £80 to save me the tax return.
HMRC: You've worked really hard now you owe us money.
Me: Ok how much?
HMRC: You tell me
Me: What if i get it wrong?!
HMRC: Prison
Me: You've taken ££££s more in taxes than you should have.
HMRC: Put in a claim.
Me: I have. How long will it take to process?
HMRC: It may not be processed within your lifetime.
Me: Anything I can do?
HMRC: Nope. Tough luck. More fool you for trusting the system. 🤷♂
Sven didn't go to prison. It just shows if your rich enough HMRC is just something to be ignored. If you have a modest income and underpay by £1k you better just hand it over as the fines are 10% of the amount owed and don't want to be dealing with threats on your credit history etc.
😂😂😂
That's the IRS, not HMRC
This is so spot on.
When I was between jobs, my monthly income increased which meant that I didn't pay enough tax, I owed £240. I rang up to see if I could just pay it off instead of them messing with my tax code. 5 hours over the space of a few days, and in the end they guy on the phone said no I can't I just need to have my tax code changed and I need to pay it off slowly thought-out the year. I then mentioned I was expecting a pay rise, so my tax repayment would be too much, he then said HMRC will give you a tax rebate. This is long winded and expensive. I talked to a father-in-law how is a tax manager and said I was correct and should be able to pay it off and said to file a complaint, I did and never heard back. The tax rules and navigating HMRC is too complex and time consuming.
I did exactly as you suggested, paid it off as a "voluntary payment" filled in a form along with a cheque (thier preference not mine). Almost 2 months later still they changed my tax code and told me to wait a further 30 days ontop of that for it to show. Eventually it seemed to show on thier "system" but no record on my personal online tax account, only the record on my bank statement that the cheque had been accepted. Shambles
You're better off being unemployed or moving to another country that appreciates honest workers.
You can ask for a change of tax code online. Search "hmrc How to update your tax code".
@@aaronmicalowe Funny you say that. I'm currently applying for jobs in US. 3x the salary with less taxes, comparable living costs to London, healthcare through employer and is $50 a month (compared to ~£300 NI in UK). Man the UK is absolutely and utterly behind.
@@DrTFW1 I still get full healthcare for free, so I don't have to worry about remortgaging a house to stay alive. But I would prefer to be in a job, which gets less likely every day.
It should be the law that if HMRC deliberately disconnects your call because they didn't answer, you don't have to pay any tax.
you don't have to you just believe u do i sure didnt sighn a binding contract did you ? last time i checked if there is no binding contract then there isnt anyone to pay and if they take it its theft i demand all service providers to provide me with an invoice they wont give you one because doing so would bound a contract between me and the goverment and they would then be liable by law to what is spent amd borrowed wich means they can be sued
They should have a rule whereif they want money they can work for it... tax is fraud when money printing worthless paper is normal...
@@mrwpg who is going to make that law, the lawyers, Mps taht are living through the same tax
@ In a democracy the people would make the law and have a right to refuse taxation without a say...
@@Mkhl4Sure But they ain't living on the tax, they are living on counterfeit currency printed from thin air...
I once spent countless hours on the phone to HMRC to tell them they had mis calculated my tax. I spoke to 4 people who disagreed with me despite me showing them the simple mistake that had been made. I eventually spoke to someone who could do basic maths and thought that was that. 3 years later, they sent me a bill for 3k, which again was wrong. It eventually got sorted after 4 years and probably 10 phonecalls over a simple mis calculation.
Similar happened to me. I've always been on top of my codes and when my employer made a mistake on their declarations I got penalised and it was a simple thing to work out but it took years to finally work out because they only rectify things at the end of tax year, stupidly...
Most of them don't know basic maths, they just read off the computer. "Computer says no... "
@@monkayjim999 Absolutely - the HMEC is completely populated with baboons, who could NEVER get a job in the real world, they are ways too thick.
They rely on the fact that it's complicated enough to deter taxpayers from making an effort to claim.
And after watching this video, it looks like it's paying off handsomely for HMRC
Oh god that hold music. I actually grabbed my guitar whilst listening to it and learned it 😂
You learned to play guitar while on hold!
@ haha I’ve been playing 25 years!
@@Discombobulate453 You were put on hold for 25 years? Consider yourself lucky it was that quick. 😋
@@aaronmicalowe yeah. Still trying to pay my tax bill from the year 1999!
My partner and I left the UK nearly 9 years ago now and we haven't been tax payers there for about 8 years. We told HMRC when we left and filed a final return. We received a letter from them late last year saying my partner owed them $2k in late filing penalties for not filing his tax returns! Having to then call them all the way from New Zealand and explain to them we haven't been tax payers in the country for 8 years....and we told them that when we left, it was a nightmare. I do not miss all the crappy red tape over there. Last time I tried you have to physically go into the bank to close your account - physically impossible if you are on the other side of the world. In NZ you can open and close bank accounts just by sending the bank a secure message in your internet banking. IRD (equivalent to HMRC) also automatically refund any tax into your bank account as long as you have provided one....miles ahead of the UK HMRC.
You have to file an annual self assessment even if you're not resident or paying tax in the UK. It's foolish of you for not finding out the rules before you left the country.
@@psammiadyou are wrong. I'm typing this from Bangkok.
@@psammiadno you do not!
My partner is from NZ and came to the UK, she informed them she was moving and needed access to her cash in the UK. They refused all her attempts to withdraw money despite being told it would be allowed and also wouldn't close the account until she came into branch. I can promise you the UK isn't the only one with red tape.
@@psammiad Nope..don`t give tax advice when you don`t have a clue what you are talking about. You have to do one and as long as you don`t have a tax liability from it..thats you done, your UTR goes inactive until you inform them you are in a position to pay tax again.
I spent a short time as a self-employed person and learned more from a mate about what could and couldn’t be claimed. However, he had the best story I’ve come across as he had a visit from a Tax Officer. During the visit, the TO visited the toilet. That same toilet had recently been fitted in the office and had been claimed for in the Return that my mate had submitted. The TO said that it was not exclusive to the business and could have been used outside office hours. I think the TO’s argument was undermined by the fact that my mate said he was not exactly able to take it home with him…
Really well put together, Damien. I enjoyed the props. I think the OHP was worth the 3 hour trip. (I assume you’ll be claiming that as a legitimate business expense…)
That's brilliant lmao. I feel like tax officers and "TV license Enforcers" and people who work in similar domains are just a bunch of proper clowns
You got to appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into this video to highlight the problem without being boring, this deserves a Oscar, great video very entertaining 👍
They don’t want to change, because improvements mean they’ll get less money from us.
Plus they might have to actually think about something other than what they are going to have for dinner that night and what's on the box. All absolute baboons.
Enjoy your forthcoming audit Damien 😂
🫣
Ive worked as a security contractor for HMRC , they have hardly any staff in the offices and the staff who answer the phones fo on endless smoke breaks and dont answer the phones. The senior people work maybe a day a week in the offices.
*go*
I admire the commitment to the Overhead Projector. Fantastic tour of awesome 90s tech.
I learned Electronic principals with lectures on OHPs - strange times.
Man! You need to rotate the top knob to focus! I used those, they were hard to access, are you kidding me! They were elite!
I have one, bought from eBay a few years ago, I love it!
HMRC definitely needs rebuilding. They tried to drag me into a court case against an large accountancy firm I used to use, HMRC were looking at years 2018-2020. I stopped using the accountancy in March 2018, so only three months of the three year period. They ASSUMED I was still a customer and claimed I owed thousands in tax for the full three years. They didn't even do the most basic of due diligence. The court case is going to fail, as they're trying to apply a court win they had to other businesses - it's nowhere near the same circumstances, and from my experience they can't even do the basics of an investigation. It's going to fail and it will be our tax payer money wasted. I wonder if I can do a FOIA request to find out how much HMRC spend on court cases they lose every year, I expect the figure is not pretty.
Thankyou so much for calling this out! honestly thankyou!
HMRC ended up charging me late fees for an amount I had already paid but had got “stuck” in their system and was therefore not linked to my account. The first time I found out about this was when I got a threatening letter through from third party debt collectors. Over the course of 4 months I rang over 10 times, only got through to them 4 times and in all of those occasions were told it should be sorted now. The final person I spoke to ended up just telling me to pay the late fees which were still accruing interest to stop them from going up and then I would receive a refund. I did and I’ve never heard back from HMRC and I still occasionally get letters from debt collectors. I was a small business earning less than £50k and I am in the process of shutting down the company for no other reason than the stress HMRC have caused. The state of the current tax system means we are at the point where unless you can afford a full time in house bookkeeper / accountant, you can’t operate a business.
Cheques are a security risk. I took my mums cheque book by accident and filled out one for £50 to a friend with MY NAME and Signature and Santander CLEARED IT!
Just because a check clears doesnt necessarily mean that you will have the money though. Sometimes the initial check is cleared/accepted and then at a later date when it is verified false and then the money that you “received” disappears.
Kind of in a similar way to the recent US chase bank run. You don’t actually get the money, this is due to a multitude of reasons including settlement times etc. I doubt it would have stayed cleared if you left it long enough, if it did then thats truly worrying and there has been some fault in the system
@_Hollie_ ahhh, I didn't know that. We made Santander aware of the situation as soon as we'd figured out what had happened and they took the money back from my friend, and I re issued it using my cheque book. So I'll never know if they'd have verified it of their own accord.
Anything up to 500 isn't checked. You could write Mickey mouse on the cheque and if it was under 500 it would be processed. I know this because I worked on cheque clearing systems back in the day
weirdly HMRC do not use your moms cheque book
@@_Hollie_Clearance or no clearance, cheques needs to be made obsolete as a relic of the past, it's 2025
Last year I was sent a letter saying I had to fill a self assesment. I have never done it before and the letter said it had to be done before the 31st of Jan or within 3 months, whatever was later. I did it one of the last days of Jan and only a couple of days after receiving the letter and when I finished it said I had to pay, but the total to pay was 0. One week later I went in to check and to my surprise I was told I had to pay X money plus interest because of late payment. I called them and they told me since I was late, they could not do anything. Not only I did it on time according to the letter I was sent, when I finished the self assesment, the total to pay was 0 and there was no option to pay anyway. Had I not checked the website again, I would accrued a higher interest.
That music triggered my ptsd
production quality on the up! good job
Damien this year after rules changes means I fall under the need to submit a self assessment. But since I get benefits from employer I found it hard to determine if I still need to submit a self assessment. I did the quiz and this wasn’t included in the criteria. I had to call 3 times and speak to 3 different hmrc agents to find out that I didn’t.
But it was too late I was told to submit a sa1 form which didn’t even have the benefit listed I have - private healthcare.
So now I got to wait for my profile to update and then call them for the 4th time to get self assessment removed.
The third agent I spoke to was unsure and went and spoke to a tax technician and informed me benefits under 2500£ on p11d don’t need to be claimed. My issue is amount of agents who don’t care giving right advice.
My tax code has also changed 2 times 23-24 but salary hasn’t changed April it’s so odd.
3:35 dial on the side of the mirror head adjusts the focus Damo
Yeah I had it at the max range of focus couldn’t twist it anymore, had positioned it everywhere in the room to get it sharper but no luck
As a UK accountant, you nailed it! HMRC is a minefield and my heart goes out to all British taxpayers.
QWERTY was created to prevent the hammers from jamming. Not to slow the typist down
They create barriers on purpose to not give you any money owed. DWP do the same.
It is ridiculous how much admin is required for small or no gains.
I filed taxes myself for the first time this year and doing it without a UK passport was near impossible. What an absolute pain of a system.
Can you use an EU biometric one. Genuine question for someone I know. Registering with the Government Gateway using a U.K. Passport and a Driving Licence was difficult enough.
@@MrDuncl I have a new smartphone, but it does not have an NFC reader.
I submitted a tax return in 8 July 2024, and checked around mid-Aug how long it would take - the HMRC website mentioned "You should have received a reply by
15 August 2024". I did not!. Early Sep, still no update, so I called - waited an hour on the phone to be told 'security checks may take another 8-12 weeks "call back 12 weeks the original after the submitted date". I waited and waited, not wanting to have to make the dreadful call/wait again, no updates forthcoming. So I called early Nov. "Security check still ongoing", WTF! I questioned the issue, explained I'd been waiting since July, and requested an escalation. The operator asked me to "wait a moment", when she returned 10 minutes later, security checks were cleared and ready to process payment. I had to provide bank details all over again (no idea why they couldn't use them from the system, as I had already entered - I did ask). I was told payment would take 14-days after more security checks, which was about right. I did not get paid any interest!
Damien this is such a great video. You should look into tax codes in the NHS - it's an absolute hidden nightmare of payroll teams demanding that our doctors owe them huge sums of money because the tax code system is so complicated, and because of shift work, night shifts, changing hospitals constantly and moving between pay brackets, the payroll team gets it wrong ALL the time. Causes huge amount of stress for the frontline workers.
Love the amount of deductible's you managed to fit into that video with old school tech Damo !!
Haha yep including the tamagotchi!
I have an aversion to employing an accountant because if they do something I’m not aware of, I’m the one carrying the can. That’s not a good situation to be in.
If you use a reputable accountant the contract should include insurance for mistakes they make. You can check if they are registered with ICAEW or a charter tax institute.
Also relying on an accountant who makes a mistake does give you some defence against penalties. Not complete immunity, but some mitigation.
I have applied for the Marriage Allowance for the first time this year. I stay home with my son, but I also started a small business, so I had to fill out a self assessment for the first time. Since I didn't earn much last year, I decided to give it a go, see if it's actually worth it. I could have applied years ago, but to be honest, I was afraid I'm not eligible and I'll pay more tax that I should, but also I had no idea how to claim.. I'm a foreigner, and I find UKs tax system much easier than in my home country. There everything is still on paper, websites are much more complicated than you've shown on the video, and they're written in a language, that an average tax payer truly doesn't understand without hiring a professional... Despite all the cons you mention in your video, and despite I agree with most of them, I believe that the UK has quite easy processes and they're not as hard to understand as elsewhere (at least where I come from).
The OHP 😂😂 This almost tops the Art Attack pasta frame. All good info etc etc, but Damo the lengths you go to for a joke is one of the best things about this channel.
I listened to every word, clear, concise, to the point, helpful and educational. Thanks and good luck.
The second you put that hold music on my entire body shuddered 😬
I just take a photo of the cheque (front and back) on my banking App and it's deposited. Easy peasy...!
Indeed most UK banking apps nowadays can let you just photo the cheque in. I'm surprised he's leaving 80 quid to fester
Easy unless over the limit imposed by the bank, I’ve had to regularly send cheques through the post for vat refunds . This after paying for software each month to pay tax digitally- demanded by HMRC so absolutely shocking to get a paper check back!
@@AndrewWright-m1o except we already know it's 80 quid
Set up a Personal Tax Account! It’s the easiest way to make changes, ask for tax code change, update benefits in kind and self-assessment. Also remember it is your personal responsibility to inform HMRC of changes, not your employer. I learnt the hard way with huge amounts of stress and swore I would never let HMRC do me over again.
Mate, I remember sliding a blank cheque inside a small printer in a retail store, and watch that bad boy print the amount and details on it, then have the customer sign it and keep it in the till. Good old 90s.
I remember working in a pub in 2005 and our entire telephone system went down; we had no idea what to do and then a customer randomly said it was so much easier when those carbon print machines were used (where you put the credit card in a skid something over the top). The landlord ran out of the room and came back two minutes later with two working credit card machines, so we used them for the rest of the day. They saved our whole business that day.
The HMRC hold tune is a banger
I arranged a UFPLS withdrawal for my wife from her SIPP a few months ago, exactly calculated so that she would pay no tax in this tax year, taking into account the 25% tax free lump sum element. HMRC changed her tax code to 1257X (emergency tax code) and swiped about £4K of it despite her tax dashboard showing that no tax will be payable. To get this tax back we called them and had to fill out an online claim form which they didn’t acknowledge and seem to have no knowledge of. Each step of this process involved waiting nearly an hour before being put through to some dopey sounding person with a Welsh accent who had no knowledge of the case and rerouted the call round in circles until it was dropped.
I have now given up chasing this money and accept that we will have to wait until April to file a self assessment and recover it that way. In future my UFPLS planning will assume the tax free bit will be stolen by HMRC until they deign to give it back, so delay UFPLS withdrawals until just before April. Very strange system. I assumed that the 25% tax free bit would be handed over immediately and not even seen by HMRC. Wonder if they will pay interest on it? Probably not…
My online banking app allows me to scan cheques.. money hits the account straight away (usual cheque clearing times) no excuse not to cash cheques..
My bank has a limit. £1000 and you must go to a branch.
This is brilliant. Thank you.
you need to focus the image on the projector, their should be some turn able knobs or something like that on the top reflector
HMRC owe me £3000 , from over paid VAT and a fine that I paid because they wrongly claimed I hadn't paid said VAT, they refuse to refund me despite me proving they made a mistake, my only option is to hire a lawyer, which will likely cost me more than £3000 and I worry that going that route will also cause them to look into my affairs deeper, I don't think I have done anything wrong but I also didn't think I owed them money and look how that turned out....they have all the power and no accountability
you can use your banking app to scan your cheques to deposit them, no need to go into branch. simple, HSBC lets you do it for example, not sure about others
Lloyds do it too for cheques up to £500. Above that, you have to deposit at a branch - assuming you can find one.
Only for low value cheques. I had to lodge the cheque at the post office.
I hate HMRC, its always a one sided deal, 'We want' I got arrested for a thing a company I worked with did, the reason for the arrest, they couldn't get a hold of me as I worked away from home. Turned out the wee weasel broke the rules to get me in front of him, but by the time I found that out, has was gone for 'other issues' But time and time again they have behaved terribly and that's ME a PAYE worker I do not and cannot sort my taxes my company does, I am not self employed just like the millions of us hard working souls 'I get taxed to death' I get no, tax schemes no lower taxes, no claims for ANYTHING do we get anymore. Its wrong and its immoral.
Over £30bil of missing pensions waiting to be declared in the UK too.
A friend of mines work was being absorbed into the health trust here in the North of Ireland.
I dont know specifics but for some reason it menat hed be on an emergency tax code for like 2 weeks or something.
Turns out 4 months later he realises hes never been taken fof emergency tax and was paying full rates with Zero personal allowance.
And to no ones suprise HMRC said "Sorry, our bad but we CANNOT issue you a refund until the next tax year"
The systems a shambles
On your cracking the code section you missed S and C. They are for Scotland and Wales respectively
Them: you owe us
Me: how much?
Them: you tell me?
Me: i dunno, i didnt keep track
Them: well we know how much, but you tell us how much?
Me: id say £500?
Hmrc: Wrong! Now you go prison. Do not pass go... do not collect universal credits
I owe them 160 quid because they failed to keep track. My jobs supposed to do it for me, I dislike it being like that and I'd love to learn to do it myself but HMRC are so vague and I believe its on purpose to keep us "in check" so to speak.
3:06 some banks do allow cheques to be cashed in on the app. HBSC is one. bur its rather few tbh, needs to be more widespread.
The majority of banks allow this, but it's capped at £1,000.
HMRC rely on folks being slack. They can owe you money but you cant owe them money. 😂
0:14 that farmer was clearly in hospital
2:41 I see why they are not stopping the cheques
That slide thing unlocked core memories for me
The impulse of the UK was inevitable. They care more about sending money out or wasting it on roundabout flowers than they do on retention and growth.
I am an accountant who used to have to deal with royalty taxes as I worked for publishers. We also had a tax team (for some reason they didn’t deal with royalty tax), and apparently the company had underpaid PAYE, owing around £200k, and without telling us, the HMRC moved all the money we have been paying into royalty tax to fill in the shortfall of the PAYE tax, and then issued a letter and a fine to my department saying that we must pay royalty tax, and the tax team gave me shit for this, and when I actually found out what was happening (took me weeks) they never apologised and still had the pay the fine. Lol.
Loving the historic Props Damo.
Makes it worth it! Although sort of terrifying that we know refer to them as ‘historic’
I recently got a cheque from HMRC, after waiting a very long time. It was for a large enough amount I had to go to a bank branch, which meant finding a bank branch (my local ones had closed).
The mediocracy of life in the UK is an embarrassment!
You say this because there are a few issues with the country. But all countries have issues and yes we have issues in the UK but it's still one of the best countries to live in worldwide.
I lived in NZ for a year and I loved it but it was missing something that the UK just fulfills for me. No place like it in the world I have found.
@@FrozenDung a FEW issues????
This ! Been saying this for years . An average country at best and rapidly declining
@@FrozenDung Sure, but our living standards are in collapse because the rich are taking up ever larger proportions of the wealth.
@FrozenDung Thank goodness there is no other place like the UK in the world - bonded to both the parasite elite class and monarchy. And forever now the loyal lapdog of the Yanks…
I got an angry letter in the mail saying I had unpaid taxes and HMRC has been trying to contact me about them.
Turns out I was 4 months late, and this was the first time they had contacted me! No texts, no emails, no nothing. It's not even on the landing page of my tax account.
I had to pay a big chunk of interest, and I'm mad because this is definitely intentional. It could have been avoided by just contacting me at any point!
I've ran a business for a while, so I know how to do it. I just stupidly assumed I'd get some kind of reminder if I was doing anything wrong.
I would add another massive issue - outdated tax brackets!
Tapers!
Fiscal drag
Yes, but that's not HMRC's doing, that comes directly from successive governments deciding to allow fiscal drag (wage inflation not being matched by tax bracket inflation) to do the job of raising taxes for them while allowing them to claim they haven't raised taxes...
I'm on PAYE but still owe HMRC £6500 due to an error they made! They put me on the wrong tax code for 18 months, despite my tax bracket not changing year on year. Not only do I owe the previous year's unpaid additional tax of £6500, but for the last six months of this tax year I've been paying off the additional required tax from the first 6 months. That's been quite a monthly hit and I'm fortunate to be able to handle it (plus I manage my finances well).
They are bloated, incompetent and hard to deal with. Only once have I spoken with an advisor who explained clearly and was personable.
Then there's the fact tax brackets don't shift with inflation, don't get me started on that!
Tried on Sunday but Barclays app was down so I couldn’t make a payment 😢
That’s why I always say that filling your tax affairs shouldn’t require a degree or even an accountant. Government wants this money, it should work hard to arrange all the necessary tools for it, so it is easy and quick to do so.
So I do have some insight into HMRC's working. Whilst I don't know the full story, what they have mentioned is that they are going through a massive modernisation upgrade and the hope is that this new system is a stepping stone to all the things you are advocating for, but that the system built in the 90s needs to be slowly upgraded whilst making sure it still works throughout. Taxes can't have an outage so it's a slow, careful, delicate upgrade.
Let's hope it's not Fujitsu making the software or there'll be trouble on the horizon.
@@muppet_magnet Or Barclays!
OR c(r)apita
That hold music made me have a physical reaction. I actually shuddered and grabbed my sofa cushion tight. What a nightmare I've had with HMRC...
2:50 that is the reason HMRC send cheques when they refund the tax payer
It’s most likely just that cheques are an outdated technology that is difficult to phase out at the scale of HMRC
The money is accounted for and designated for the people who haven’t claimed it so there’s no way HMRC could embezzle that money as you imply
I didn’t know I could pay less tax on my pension.
I have to look at this as I don’t work now.
I am grateful. Thanks x❤
_Give me oil in my lamp_ on the OHP lets go!!!
KEEP ME BURNNINGGG 🤘🤘🤘🤘
Love your retro stuff 👍
@1:45 in 10 years time we'll be wiggling our noses and 0.00001BTC will have been transferred somewhere...
Bitcoin is going to zero with all the other musical chair coins.
Bitcoin like all crypto is the very thing that everyone wants to have sold before the music stops.
😂😂😂😂😂
There’s a couple of good things they do. Like you can click pay for your self assessment in the HMRC app, and it will open your bank app with the details pre-filled out
Counterpoint: our system is infinitely better than the hellscape the Americans have to deal with. I, for one, quite enjoy doing my self assessment each year, but I understand that I'm in the minority.
Got that tune in my head now, thanks.
My mum waited 9 months for a tax refund because she isn't able to get a tax account online - you need a UK passport or driving licence. She has neither so has to face that call music so often.
Moving to a purely digital system is going to further exclude so many people until they simplify their systems.
Great video, I particularly liked your point on others opinions of 'just fill out your tax on time' backing up the point you can't expect everyone to know the ins and outs of self employed tax law particularly when starting out.
I'm still flabbergasted that the UK tax code is almost 22,000 pages, whilst Hong Kong's is less than 1000!
Too many rules means excess numbers of nit so bright civil servants to muddle your tax affairs.This is beneficial only to accountants who can unravel the chaos caused.
Complexity creates contradictions, ambiguity and wiggle room.
Easier for those who's job it is to find Loopholes and create Fee's and Fines.
Just look at some of our Laws LOL.
I live in Hong Kong, I can pay my taxes online through a banking app or go to 711, but a rebate comes in a cheque.
If the money owed to you is more than a days wages, take a sunny day off work, make a packed lunch and a flask, and call hmrc from the beach. They are stuck in an office, and your going to be paid knowing your day is so much better than theirs. Good luck everyone 👍
Hmrc actually sent me a refund of my self assessment yesterday! Minus the tax I had to pay this year
I've done my own tax return for about 25 years now, every June get my P60 and my wife picks a Saturday, hides my car keys , my console controller and then locks the doors! She then makes us sit there until the god awful things are done online, it takes 90s mins and three tax returns all done. I always just leave them HMRC to just sort anything out through my tax code. I have a main job and registered legal partnership in sideline business with my wife. I can't understand why people leave it to the last minute, the second you have your P60 and other paperwork, just do the bloody thing and get it over with!!
Not tax related, but it took me five years and three complaints to get my Class 2 voluntary national insurance paid up to speed so I have a state pension. Barclays cancelled the DD in 2017 because no money had gone out on it, so I called up HMRC and they confirmed that it had been paid, albeit for the wrong amount! The people I talked to at HMRC through their complaints procedure were "at a loss to explain" why the direct debit had never been collected, and I now have to use freakin' giros and bank transfers to make sure that I get a state pension.
I’m holding SONY25K for the long game. It’s got that once-in-a-lifetime vibe ☺️
Damian, having been the person who designs how big public and private organisations work - bureaucracies on the scale of HMRC are very challenging to change. Often the private sector isn’t much better, it’s just got more money. It’s actually a really interesting topic in itself.
SONY25K is real. Not hyped like other coins, but the potential here is unreal. Holding long-term.
I live in the Isle of Man. My first year in work I had no idea how to do a tax return so I went to the tax office and a lady sat down and went through it with me and I filed it there and then. I explained I’m dyslexic and she was really helpful explaining each question showing what I could claim and what I couldn’t. When I opened a brokerage account I rang up the tax office, got straight through with no wait. She told me about how each type security is taxed and how to do my return. We also only have two tax codes and you can’t claim back the interest on your mortgage which nice 👌🏻
The key to all of this is Isle of Man, I bet the Tax office in the channel islands is fairly similar.
😂bro though Labour would improve the tax code 😂 the only way we are getting any sort of reform is with a reform government.
Won’t be good reforms though will it
Yeah, they'll reform all the money into Nigel Farage's personal bank account. Mug.
Reform wants to privatise the NHS so good luck with that.
Could you do a video on how exactly to claim back additional tax relief on a SIPP please. I think this would be really useful to a lot of people. Thanks..
This is the BEST video you have EVER made, hands down! Please make more educational videos like this 🙏🏻
Brilliant as always Damo, your video editing is on point 👍🏻👍🏻
Just checked mine £160 sitting there. Really appreciate it. Subbed 👍
I'd completely forgotten to go back and check (as they say to wait 3 days before even checking to see if you have a refund). Similar nice surprise waiting for me too. Thankyou @DamienTalksMoney Subbed & I'll put a bit extra in the RNLI charity box next time I pass that way.
Another fantastic video, Damien, thanks! I nearly spat out my coffee when the OHP came out. Keep 'em coming.
Thanks for shining a light on this, this predatory system goes all the way to the top
Appreciate the OHP effort, needs more assembly singalongs though.