Age needs one voice. Now it has:
Age UK is the new force combining Age Concern England and
Help the Aged in England.
The new force combining &
HMRC (formerly the Inland Revenue) is currently sending out letters to nearly 6 million people who have paid the wrong amount of tax since 2008.
Over the past 2 years, nearly £2bn has been underpaid, with around 1.4m taxpayers owing an average of £1,400 each.
However, £1.8bn has also been overpaid, so another 4.3m people will get a rebate, because they have paid too much tax.
It’s thought that some people may have overpaid and underpaid their income tax, effectively cancelling any payments out.
We do not currently know how many people who receive a pension have been affected.
Previously, HMRC used to check amounts that had been paid via PAYE manually against their own records.
They have now introduced a new computer system that has alerted them to the discrepancies and, as a result, millions of letters are being sent out.
The discrepancies happen when people move job, are being paid via PAYE for more than one job, or because employers are using the wrong tax code.
The first thing to do is make sure you actually read it and check all the basic details.
Make sure that HMRC actually has the right information about your employment:
If you have underpaid, don't panic. The Inland Revenue won't expect you to pay the money back in one go.
It's important to realise that what you are receiving will be an informal calculation only (known as a P800) and is not actually a tax demand.
If you don't understand the calculations, you should challenge HMRC to produce a detailed explanation as to how they reached their figures.
In the majority of cases, HMRC will simply alter your tax code and you will pay more tax each month from April 2011 onwards. Most people will pay the money back over the course of 12 months.
HMRC has announced that it will not be pursuing claims of less than £300 - this applies to approximately 40% of underpayments.
If paying the money back that quickly is going to cause you problems, then HMRC has agreed that payments can be spread over 3 years.
If this applies to you, contact your local tax office and request this.
However, if a tax debt is legally due, then you must repay it.
You need to be just as vigilant, if you've paid too much tax.
Check the details with just as much scrutiny as if you'd been told you'd underpaid, because if HMRC discover there's been a further error, you could still be liable to repay the rebate.
Once notification has been sent through, a cheque should arrive within 7-10 days.
No. HMRC will only contact you by letter. If you receive any email claiming to be from HMRC telling you to submit your claim online, this is a phishing scam and should be deleted immediately.More information about scams
Officials have indicated that there is a procedure called the 'extra statutory concession A19' (the exact text relating to this is on pages 25-26 of the document.).
This procedure means that HMRC will consider writing off the demands if you can prove you provided all the correct information to calculate your tax correctly and they failed to use it within 12 months.
However, you're by no means certain to escape repayment. According to HMRC, 'In fairness to all taxpayers, this is not a blanket exemption and very much depends on the specific circumstances of each case.'
The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) has produced a comprehensive guide to the tax underpayments and overpayments issue.
Read the LITRG's guide for more information and advice about the current tax situation
Download our Tax Guide (PDF 630 KB)
Read HMRC's official announcement
Set your location to see what Age UK offers in your local area.
HM Revenue & Customs help ensure that the money is available to fund the UK's public services. They also provide targeted financial support to families and individuals. Visit their ‘Contact us’ section to enquire about taxable income.
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have set their computer up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.
You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
Set the appearance of this website so you can read it more easily
To see information relating to Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales set your preference below: