Help with

This query relates to a bear trust that was set up my my (now deceased) father for my son, of which I am a trustee. At this point can I just state that I have never done a tax return. I have always and still am PAYE. I appreciate ignorance isn’t necessary a plea, but…. So. I was directed to register the above trust with HMRC a couple of years ago, which I duly did. I received a letter in early 2023 requesting that I submit a tax return for the years 2022-23. I went online to try to do this, and having entered the UTR etc it revealed that there was £0 tax to pay. Great I thought. That was simple. There were no obvious further steps needed. A few months later I received notification of a £100 fine for late submission of the return. Somewhat confused I tried to unsuccessfully call HMRC to discuss but, for anyone who has tried this, it’s virtually impossible to get through to anyone. I sent a letter explaining there was £0 tax to pay so this fine must be incorrect. Some weeks later I received a threatening letter telling me again to pay the fine for late submission. I reluctantly paid and assumed that was the end of the matter. I had no further communication regarding this. I recently received instructions to submit a return for the 2023-24 period, and once again went online to do this and was once again given a £0 figure. Having had the £100 fine I was somewhat wary but again, there was no obvious was of going any further unless I paid to download some accounting software??? I called HMRC and finally got through to someone who suggested the best course of action was to submit a paper return, and “oh by the way, you’ve not done 2022-23 yet, I’ll send you both of these” (no mention of any potential fine) Again, these forms are utterly confusing but I believe they were filled out correctly and posted back to HMRC using a tracked method. Yesterday I received a letter stating that my return for 2022-23 is more than 3 months late and I could be liable to a fine of £900!!!! This is utterly terrifying and I really can’t afford to pay this. My stress levels are through the roof. What can I do about this?

Hi,

We are sorry that the penalty notice received has caused you distress. We would need to access the record to check and review the penalty notice.

You can contact our Self Assessment team at:

Self Assessment: general enquiries

Thank you.