Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom Office
Last year, I did a freelance editing job for a Queen’s professor, for which I was paid about 50 pounds. Any payment is reported to HMRC, which takes a cut. HMRC assigns a tax code to you based on the income they project for you, which is based on what is reported to them. That tax code is essentially your tax rate.
Based on this ONE TIME payment from Queen’s of 50 pounds, HMRC decided I made 2381 pounds at Queen’s last year and 1190 pounds this year. That in effect increased the amount of taxes withheld from my Preventable Surprises income (by reducing the amount of tax-free income I was assigned at PS).
I’ve been trying to correct this for a few weeks now. I created a Government Gateway account. This involved three levels of security, including a code sent to my phone each time I log on. That account allowed me to create an HMRC personal account (I had to enter information from three different boxes on my last pay stub during one step of the personal account process). My goal was to send an online query about how to change my tax code, given that the wait times on the phone were horrendous.
On the HMRC personal account page, I could see my tax codes and I could add information about any unreported income. I could NOT see anywhere on the website allowing me to correct errors in HMRC’s calculations. You don’t do tax returns here because HMRC helps itself to what it thinks you should pay. Fair enough, but give people a chance to contest errors. Here is the response I got when I asked what to do about tax codes that were assigned in error. I’ve put in italics the bits that I thought were particularly obtuse:
"If you think your tax code for the 2018/2019 tax year is incorrect please follow the instructions below:
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Log into your Personal Tax Account
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Under the PAYE heading clink the link 'View your Income Tax estimate'
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The next page is headed 'Your PAYE Income Tax summary for 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019'.
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On the right hand side of this page scroll to the heading 'Something missing?', and click the link 'Add missing income from another source'
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Click on the green button 'Start Now' and complete as appropriate.
If a new code is generated, this will be issued to your employer/pension provider to instruct them to operate this in their next payroll submission."
This resulted in me filling out a 3-page form primarily concerned with missing income but also with incorrect income.
I bet the minute I get this problem sorted, I’ll have a second problem in that my P.S. income will end at the end of May. If HMRC wants to correct the Queen’s freelance problem via an adjustment to my PS income, that won’t work if the PS income ends.
I’m also spending hours on other fun projects like correcting my National Insurance Number, which is listed under Kathleen Gilmore (it was issued in the 1970s) instead of Kathleen Aspin. Another fun one: my pension through Preventable Surprises is not showing up as having been invested. SmartPension, which helps small employers set up pensions, says the money has been invested but their system is undergoing an upgrade. Keep checking back, they say.
On the upside, over the past few days I have filled cracks in three walls in the kitchen and dining room, primed and then painted said walls. Every now and again I can check something off the endless to-do list.
Neither of the landscapers has come back with a quote for the back garden. The wallpaper guy said he’d call but hasn’t (I went through this with the same guy last year). The tiler gave me a quote of 435 pounds to tile a 3 foot by 4 foot atrium. No way. I have to find another tiler and arrange another quote.
I’d like to get a few things spruced up before mom visits at the end of June but time is running out. Being out of the country for most of January through April has not helped my housework productivity scores.
5-5