Help I own shares and am Higher rate tax payer

by **lloydr** on Wed Nov 17, 2010 7:34 pm

Hi I have some shares I completly forgot I had until I got a dividend this year, I own a very small number and the dividends are about £30 a year if Im lucky. I changed jobs in Novermber 2008 and my new salary is above the 40% threshold, when should I have started filling in a self assesment form, and what are the consiquences of not doing one yet? I only realised I needed to do one as someone mentioned that they do and have done since they had shares.

I only have these shares as they were left to me in a will back in 2001 and I dont really know what they are worth or if I really want them.

Am I looking at a fine and investigation because I hav enot declared them? Im really worries as I am about to be made redundant and any fines will be hard to cover.
Please cna someone point me in the right direction so I can sleep at night.

Thanks

L

by **mullet** on Wed Nov 17, 2010 8:16 pm

Don't worry. Penalties in such circumstances are tax-geared rather than a specific amount, and (say) 25% of what you owe just wouldn't be pursued by HMRC as a monetary penalty. I don't think you need to complete a self assessment return if this is your only non-PAYE income. Just contact HMRC, tell them that you receive £30 per year in dividends, and they will reduce your tax code accordingly to collect the additional tax. If I remember rightly, the threshold for having to go into self assessment is £500 additional income I think, but don't quote me on that.

by **lloydr** on Wed Nov 17, 2010 8:27 pm

Called them, the lady on the phone said prety much that, the only other thing I thought of was Medical cover, but I have no idea what the value of that is, I only started getting this cover in Jan 2010, so she said don't worry its probably too small an ammount for them to worry about.

Im overly worries at the moment due to being at risk of redundancy and not wanting to loose any of the pay out I get.

by **Kitty Kat** on Thu Nov 18, 2010 5:16 pm

lloydr wrote:
Im overly worries at the moment due to being at risk of redundancy and not wanting to loose any of the pay out I get.

I know how that feels...

I would have expected your medical insurance to be taken care of as part of your employer's payroll, i.e. they should just collect extra tax as they will know the exact amount of the benefit you receive in advance.

by **wamstax** on Sat Nov 20, 2010 3:16 pm

Put your mind at rest as long as you kept a note of the date and time of your telephone caLL to HMRC (along with hopefully the name of the person you spoke to) then you will be ok.

See the following link as to whether or not you would actually need to complete an SA return - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/need-tax-return.htm