HMRC and It Threat Against Me - please Read

[kuanyin123]

Firstly,

I am now retired, in fact, I've been retired for five years although I did work up until December 2019.
I shall be upfront and honest. My savings are more or less gone and I depend on my State pension
to get me through on a daily basis.

I have received several letters from the HMRC saying I am not filing a self-assessment with the result
I have, according to them, an overdue balance of £1618.17. They demand that I pay this money ASAP.
And then this morning I got yet another letter from them saying that if I don't pay them this money
they shall start deducting it from my pension.

I feel very depressed. Is there any legal way to stop this terrible 'crime'?

[wamstax]

"this terrible crime"? While I can smpathise with your predicament it is not clear from what you have said whether you have buried your head in the sand until such time that matters have become critical with HMRC cutting up rough and going for their envisaged debts.

If you truly should not have been completing a tax return after the 5th April 2020 - you can check from the link below if you should have continued to make returns - then it would have been better if you had communicated directly with HMRC to stop the issue of returns.

You now need to address matters before they degenerate into possible legal action and I would suggest that you enlist the services of a local tax adviser/accountant with appropriate experience. If you cannot afford the fees then I would recommend you try your local Citizen's Advice Bureau. or the charitable tax agencies such as Taxaid - https://taxaid.org.uk - etc.

It could be difficult recovering the position if you have put your head in the sand and ignored previous advices from HMRC but the sooner you do it the better

Link for checking if you need to file a return >>> https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return

[kuanyin123]

I stopped actually working in December 2019 and paid all my taxes. But the HMRC constantly said I had to make a tax return. I Googled it several times. If you are an OAP with NO job, you DO NOT have to do a tax return. Forget the CAB. When was the last time you tried to get them on the phone? It's impossible. As it happens I have since written another letter to the HMRC, which I shall post tomorrow, and asking them why, why, why??

[darthblingbling]

If you genuinely have no taxable income to report, a phone call to the self assessment team usually clears it up who may waive the requirement and penalties. Appreciate it's a pain to get through at the moment but keep trying and see if it can be resolved over the phone first.

[D&C]

Might not apply to you but some State Pensions are well above the Personal Allowance so if there is no other income then HMRC do sometimes require a Self Assessment return as DWP do not ever deduct tax from normal State Pension payments.