The Lemon Fool

As background I filled in a tax return for 2020/21 (months ago)and it calculated I was required to pay a balancing payment of 10p and I had ticked the box to pay any tax through my code so did nothing. I received a letter a few days later saying that I didn't need to do a tax return in future years, but should make sure I paid any tax due.

Yesterday I received a text reminding me that I had tax due and should pay before 31 January 22. It looked genuine, so I went on to my personal tax account and found I owed 10p so paid the 10p due by direct debit.

I have subsequently found (in the spam box) two generic emails saying much the same thing but in a very confusing and generic way, again they look genuine. So its not really clear whether I did need to pay the balancing payment, or if it would have been taken from my code, or what. The emails were very generic.

Dear customer,
Thank you for filing your Self Assessment tax return. The deadline to pay any tax you owe is 31 January 2022.

You’ll need to go into your Self Assessment online account to check what you owe. This can help you budget and plan for your January payment.
Thank you if you’ve already paid, set up a Direct Debit or chosen to pay through your tax code. You don’t need to do anything else.

and the second one said

Thank you for sending us your Self Assessment tax return for 2020-21.

(As mentioned in our earlier email) If you still need to make a payment, you have until the 31 January 2022 to pay any tax you owe.

Our online support includes this short video, 'How do I pay my Self Assessment tax bill' on HMRC’s YouTube channel.

If you’ve already paid, set up a direct debit or chosen to pay through your tax code, thank you. You don’t need to do anything else.

I don't know if I really did need to pay or if everyone who did a tax return got a similar email.

I as usual did a self assessment over the summer. I got a reminder email from HMRC a couple of days ago so the timing of yours would suggest it is genuine.. I am pretty sure mine was. All mine did was remind me I was owing them £300 or so by 31 January and that is true. I usually pay it around or just after Christmas.

BTW I do not know what a BETA site is. The site works perfectly well for me.

Dod

daveh wrote:As background I filled in a tax return for 2020/21 (months ago)and it calculated I was required to pay a balancing payment of 10p and I had ticked the box to pay any tax through my code so did nothing. I received a letter a few days later saying that I didn't need to do a tax return in future years, but should make sure I paid any tax due.

Yesterday I received a text reminding me that I had tax due and should pay before 31 January 22. It looked genuine, so I went on to my personal tax account and found I owed 10p so paid the 10p due by direct debit.

I have subsequently found (in the spam box) two generic emails saying much the same thing but in a very confusing and generic way, again they look genuine. So its not really clear whether I did need to pay the balancing payment, or if it would have been taken from my code, or what. The emails were very generic.

Dear customer,
Thank you for filing your Self Assessment tax return. The deadline to pay any tax you owe is 31 January 2022.

You’ll need to go into your Self Assessment online account to check what you owe. This can help you budget and plan for your January payment.
Thank you if you’ve already paid, set up a Direct Debit or chosen to pay through your tax code. You don’t need to do anything else.

and the second one said

Thank you for sending us your Self Assessment tax return for 2020-21.

(As mentioned in our earlier email) If you still need to make a payment, you have until the 31 January 2022 to pay any tax you owe.

Our online support includes this short video, 'How do I pay my Self Assessment tax bill' on HMRC’s YouTube channel.

If you’ve already paid, set up a direct debit or chosen to pay through your tax code, thank you. You don’t need to do anything else.

I don't know if I really did need to pay or if everyone who did a tax return got a similar email.

I got exactly the same. If you read the letter carefully it tells you to ignore if you have already paid, set up a direct debit or requested payment through tax code. I did login to my account and that confirmed that I owe £1.60, what a blow..... It confirms if I had ticked to pay through tax code then no action needed.

You would have thought that the "software" should have been a bit more intelligent and actually checked if you had ticked to pay through tax code. But after 10 plus years this is still a BETA site.

As I can't stop HMRC sending me pointless "you could fill in your tax return now" text messages, I've added them to my spam blocker. If they have something important to say, they should write.

HMRC are badly run.

Thanks for the replies - so it looks like I didn't need to pay the 10p. I didn't see anything on my tax account to say it wasn't due even though I'd ticked th pay via code box, but I might have missed it.

When I logged on they asked if I wanted to receive all my communications from HMRC via my tax account online with an email to say when there was a new communication for me. I declined and ticked the "by post" box. Glad I did now.

I can see how generic emails like this can confuse people (it confused me) and waste peoples (and HMRC's) time.

Is it possible a decision was made to keep the emails generic (without any links, without any specifics) so that they do not resemble a scam email?

FWIW, I once had something similar: 10p to pay on my 2006/7 tax return.

I was similarly confused, but decided the prudent course of action was to pay. I got some little schadenfreude from the expectation that they made a loss on the transaction, as their debitcard fee probably exceeded 10p.

JohnB wrote:As I can't stop HMRC sending me pointless "you could fill in your tax return now" text messages . .

Actually you can stop HMRC sending you text messages. Don't give them your phone number!

Lootman wrote:Actually you can stop HMRC sending you text messages. Don't give them your phone number!

Don't they need your phone number to send you security numbers to get into your online account?

Parky wrote:

Lootman wrote:Actually you can stop HMRC sending you text messages. Don't give them your phone number!

Don't they need your phone number to send you security numbers to get into your online account?

Probably but I don't have an online account either. My tax return is submitted annually on paper, along with a cheque. So all correspondence with HMRC is by post.

Old school but I find it less invasive.

HMRC also have a nuber of different syustems which appera unconnected.

my daughter left hoe and we changed all contact details for her tax account
phone number/email/address etc etc
she now does her own tax return and to daate without problems

but HMRC still send her PAYE code changes to my email address, not hers!
so far she receives all other HMRC stuff correctly
but it seems not possible to change the PAYE code address

its no ones fault obviously and no one is responsible for the issue

Lots of companies seem scared of adding facts to emails and delight in sending out "your bill is available to view" emails which put the onus on you to log in with 2FA. Or even worse the hopelessly bland "you have a secure communication". Push back and ask for everything on paper until the developers relent.

JohnB wrote:Lots of companies seem scared of adding facts to emails and delight in sending out "your bill is available to view" emails which put the onus on you to log in with 2FA. Or even worse the hopelessly bland "you have a secure communication". Push back and ask for everything on paper until the developers relent.

Would you rather they sent emails with all your sensitive details in them? It's taken quite a long time to get them to stop sending that sort of thing...

As most of the emails would say "your electricity bill is £283", I certainly would. They needn't send addresses or bank account details. Too many companies are up their own [expletive deleted] about privacy at the expense of practicality. Forcing me to install apps or visit websites and then download files to my own filing system is much inferior to the old postal push techniques.

chas49 wrote:

JohnB wrote:Lots of companies seem scared of adding facts to emails and delight in sending out "your bill is available to view" emails which put the onus on you to log in with 2FA. Or even worse the hopelessly bland "you have a secure communication". Push back and ask for everything on paper until the developers relent.

Would you rather they sent emails with all your sensitive details in them? It's taken quite a long time to get them to stop sending that sort of thing...

I'd prefer them to send emails relevant to me. For example if I owed tax and hadn't paid it I'd like a reminder to log on and pay. If I've already paid (or set up to pay through my tax code) I don't want to receive a generic email saying that " please remember to pay any tax due by january 31st" oh and by the way we don't actually know that you owe tax we are just spamming all our "customers" with this email so you can ignore this IF you have paid or set up a to pay through your code etc.