All posts tagged: HMRC

New HMRC rule in 34 days means Brits could be left ignored | Personal Finance | Finance

New HMRC rule in 34 days means Brits could be left ignored | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

A new HMRC rule to become active next month could leave Brits in the financial lurch. New legal requires will mean that people who interract with the department on behalf of clients need to be registered, and meet “minimum standards”. From May 18, 2026, HMRC will introduce an online system for agent services accounts, replacing the current way to register. If an individual interacts with the department about another person’s tax affairs, and gets paid for it, officials consider them an adviser. The Government has said that “individual taxpayers may be affected if their tax advisers are no longer able to act on their behalf because they are either unable to satisfy the new registration requirements”, or if their tax adviser is sanctioned. If this were the case, they would not be able to legally act on behalf of their clients and could face penalties of up to £10,000. Officials would be able to suspend their registration for up to a year, requiring them to notify their clients. They would not be able to interact …

Key HMRC change will ‘improve transparency’ as Brits’ benefits checked | Personal Finance | Finance

Key HMRC change will ‘improve transparency’ as Brits’ benefits checked | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

HMRC has marked a major milestone in its efforts to improve efficiency. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) – the public sector’s property valuation experts and advisers, which provide the valuations needed to support local taxation and benefits – was assimilated into the department on April 1. This will “improve transparency”, the Treasury said. The VOA determines rental values to inform benefit payments, including local housing allowance – a way of calculating housing benefit or universal credit for private tenants in the UK, based on the area you live in and your household size – as well as council tax bands and business rates. Officials added: “The move will improve the experience of taxpayers and businesses, support HMRC’s delivery of the government’s commitment to reform the tax system and is expected to deliver between 5% to 10% of additional savings in Valuation Office administrative costs by the 2028 to 2029 tax year.” The Government has said it wants to “crack down” on universal credit fraud in order to recoup £1.3billion in overpayments. Officials said in December …

Response given with one-week deadline on £20,000 personal tax allowance change | Personal Finance | Finance

Response given with one-week deadline on £20,000 personal tax allowance change | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

Chancellor Rachel Reeves extended the income tax freeze at November’s Budget (Image: HENRY NICHOLLS, AFP via Getty Images) A petition calling on the UK Government to increase the personal tax allowance to £20,000 from its current level of £12,570 has one week remaining to gather sufficient signatures to be considered for Parliamentary debate. The petition, established on the UK Government’s petition website by Shannon Keene, has a deadline of Saturday, February 28, 2026. Titled ‘Raise the income tax personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000’, it states: “This would help with increasing rent, mortgages, Council tax, and Gas and Electric bills. Some families can’t afford to go back to work after children due to childcare costs wiping their whole income! “We think that we are currently paying ridiculous amounts of tax, and that minimum wage isn’t even enough to support an average family. We believe that this would lead to a massive increase on people willing to look for work, instead of people not wanting to, due to it being too expensive to now live.” At …

HMRC thinks I am someone else – and it’s costing me £450 a month | Money

HMRC thinks I am someone else – and it’s costing me £450 a month | Money

Published by Sam Flores

In November, HM Revenue and Customs randomly associated someone else’s job to my national insurance (NI) number. I can see where they work, when they started, their payroll number and how much they are earning. HMRC is now taxing me as if I have two jobs, earning twice as much as I do, and adding on a tax adjustment for the tax it thinks I didn’t pay last year. It’s costing me about £450 a month in extra tax and NI contributions. I waited 90 minutes to be put through to an adviser and was told they haven’t got round to it yet. BH Chorley, Lancashire Your plight seems unnervingly similar to the case of a reader who was deemed dead by HMRC after it mistakenly gave her the NI number of a since-deceased stranger. The most shocking aspect is not the blunders but the subsequent insouciance. HMRC told me that during a tax code review after you had changed jobs last year, its system matched your employment data to that of another woman who …

HMRC insists I am dead. How do I convince it I’m not? | Money

HMRC insists I am dead. How do I convince it I’m not? | Money

Published by Sam Flores

HM Revenue and Customs allocated my national insurance (NI) number to a stranger who has since died. It therefore now insists that I am dead and so will not process my pension top-up request. I’ve had this number since 1991 when I moved to the UK for six years to work. In 2015 I again took a job in the UK. At that point HMRC told me it couldn’t find my NI number on its system and insisted on issuing me with a temporary one. I’ve been trying on and off since 2015 to get my original number back and have spent hours on hold to HMRC. I’ve sent letters and visited the HMRC offices, to no avail. I was recently told I might have to wait 86 weeks for a response. The urgency now is that I need to submit my state pension forecast application, and it is distressing to be told that I am “deceased”. JH County Clare, Ireland An NI number is supposed to be for life. It’s a crucial part of …

HMRC to issued £900 fines and says ‘from January 31’ | Personal Finance | Finance

HMRC to issued £900 fines and says ‘from January 31’ | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has issued a stark warning to taxpayers: complete your tax returns promptly or face penalties of up to £900. The tax authority is alerting nearly 5.7 million individuals to mark a crucial date in their diaries following the festive period. HMRC is pressing millions to submit their tax returns before the deadline to avoid substantial fines. The cut-off date for filing a tax return for the 2022 to 2023 tax year and settling any outstanding tax is 31 January 2024, the revenue service has cautioned UK households. Those anxious about potential penalties managed to submit their returns during key bank holidays throughout the Christmas season, officials revealed. In a recent update, HMRC disclosed that over 4,600 Self Assessment customers completed their tax returns on Christmas Day itself. Altogether, 37,435 customers filed between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, indicating that for some taxpayers, festive filing has become as traditional as watching the King’s Speech or dodging the washing up. HMRC is encouraging Self Assessment customers who haven’t yet submitted their tax …