HMRC issues

[HLD24]

My friend is in hospital with acquired brain injury from an accident - her husband contacted the Inland Revenue to explain that she is not able to complete her tax return by Jan 31st and asked for an extension. They refused and said she would incur the usual fines and get reminder letters until she completes it. Has anyone been in a similar situation and able to offer any advice about how to deal with HMRC? Thank you!

[Feebie8]

Hi HLD24 🤗

Aw 🙄 the system sucks...I haven't experience of it myself but have you or your friends husband contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau? If anyone can help I imagine they would be the best...

[HLD24 in reply to Feebie8]

Hi Freebie8 THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO REPLY - WE HAVE RECEIVED A TIP FROM EMMA aka Broken_Doll that we can appeal the penalty charges. Best wishes HLD

[Broken_Doll]

Hi HLD24,

I haven’t been in this situation myself but I just had a snoop around HMRC’s website and it seems they are right, she will incur penalty notices until the tax return is completed and returned.

However, all is not lost. It seems that there is an appeal process and by the looks of it your friend has extenuating circumstances that would hopefully result in a successful appeal.

Please see this link for details of the appeals process/info:

gov.uk/tax-appeals/reasonab...

Oh and what a lovely friend you are!

Best wishes

Emma

[HLD24 in reply to Broken_Doll]

Emma - THANK YOUSO MUCH for helping us with this- I will look at the website tonight and hopefully can reassure my friends. Very best wishes. HLD

[Broken_Doll in reply to HLD24]

Awww you are so welcome! I wish you guys the very best of luck!

Best wishes!

Emma

[sospan]

Yes, I was self employed when I had my injury and had a dual problem. Not only could I not provide the evidence but also couldn't correctly sign the forms as being legally aware of what I was declaring - I was in such a state that I couldn't say if what was on the form was correct.

Fortunately, there is one group of people that HMRC listen to - accountants. It is quite surprising how high a regard they have of good quality accountants. Have a look for a quality tax accountant (not adviser).

An accountant will contact HMRC and all action will stop immediately, A good quality accountant will even get all the hate mail delivered to them so you don't have to deal with it. The accountant will also help with providing the figures for any benefit claim.

One less worry for your friends husband.

[katndog75]

Hi, my partner is self-employed and we went through a similar thing in early 2019 for the 2017/2018 period. I phoned HMRC myself and explained the situation. He was given a 28 day extension to file his tax return, but with the provision that we could phone after 14 days and request another extension. They did stress that we couldn't keep requesting extensions indefinitely and we would have to file a tax return eventually.

HMRC did keep saying that they would have to speak to my partner but I kept stressing that he was in hospital. I offered to send them medical evidence but they didn't want it at the beginning.

Can your friend not get an accountant to file on his wife's behalf? HMRC suggested this to us, but my partner was determined to do them himself! Headway might be able to point you to a sympathetic accountant.

Best of luck, in my experience none of these government bodies are as bad as we think before we start dealing with them. Throughout the whole BI journey I have only experienced negativity once or twice when dealing with official bodies.