Late Self Assessment penalty but never been self employed.

So yesterday 23/03/22 I received a letter saying I Ow a pently of £100. Tax return from 5 April 2021. I have never been self employed at all and I can log I to my account and it says self assessment pently no idea why because I have been employed all my life and have payed tax /ni through my company. I appealed the letter online and also have a tax return so they no I am not self employed. I have no idea why hmrc have me down as self employed

Hi Jason Dyker

There is a lot more criteria for Self Assessment outside of Self-Employment, you can use our SA checker tool to check if you do meet SA criteria:

Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return

Thank you.

Similar to a lot of other post on here. I have received several letters in the last few weeks with demands ranging from £100 to over £4000 for late submission of self-assessment forms from 2016 onwards. This is the first I have heard of it! I was self employed before 2016 and filled in self-assessments accordingly. When I ceased being self-employed I informed the HMRC about it and thought the matter was closed. I am now being contacted weekly about new fines, and warned that the amounts are increasing daily. Honestly, if I didn't know better I would think this was a scam. I phoned the HMRC, who told me that they couldn't do anything until I filled out self-assessments for the period of time that I'd 'missed'. My defence to this was that if I filled these forms in now then they would definitely be late! I wrote a letter to the HMRC explaining the situation and again they told me to fill in self-assessments returns. Without sounding dramatic, this feels like bullying.

Dear Sir/Madam I am writing in reference to my self assessment return. I have last filled my self assessment form on 23/06/2019. Immediately after that, I filled out the ‘Cease Trading’ form to notify I have stopped trading as I closed my business due to the change in my personal circumstance . I had informed the local authority and where I used to trade as well After this period, I was constantly seeking employment since I closed my business. I changed few employment and I stopped my employment in Feb 2020 and pandemic striked due to which I was unemployed for months . I was back in employment from July 2020 and currently working . Yesterday, for some reason I tried to log in my account and saw there are numerous messages . I am shocked to see there are penalty notices and has added upto £1600 plus! I am not sure why I am receiving this messages when I have notified HMRC I have ceased trading and I was no longer self employed I am in lot of stress , please help!

Hi
 

Binu Hada,   Please contact your own tax office as we are unable to access your tax records to comment on specifics: Contact HMRC   . Thank you.

 

I received a letter today for a self assessment late tax return penalty. I've never been self employed! When I first had a letter about this late last year, I completed the survey to see if I needed to complete a tax return, and I didn't! So I then proceeded to submit a form to remove me from self assessment and that was December 30th 2021. Looking in my government gateway I can't see that this was ever processed as the estimated completion date was Jan 2022! HMRC I feel have messed up here, and I've now been in hold for 56 minutes trying to resolve! Can an HMRC admin please advise.

Hi,

If you did not meet the Self Assessment criteria and your form has not been processed yet, you can contact us by telephone or in writing. Our Self Assessment helpline is busy at the moment:

Self Assessment: general enquiries

Thank you.

 

I initially claimed an expense (by mistake) and filed this in the tax year of 15/16, I think this was a Self Assessment Form, this has been since resolved. I subsequently have gotten self assessments forms for every tax year since, I have NOT received any correspondence about this until recently (it's been over 5 years) I now have £1,500 fine's to pay which has built up for over a year not paying (again I have not received any correspondence), I'm not sure why I have to pay the fine's as I haven't been self employed and I've been on the PAYE system in a Full Time Permanenent job for nearly 10 years, why do I have to fill in self assessment forms and pay the fine's? How do I go about fixing this do I do not need to pay any fine's or complete any self assessment tax forms?

Hi,

We are unable to withdraw tax returns for the years 2019/20 and earlier. You would need to file these returns and make an appeal against the penalties after filing them.

Thank you.

Further to my post before, I've now withdrawn self assessment as I've always been on PAYE. However I've sent my paper self assessment forms for the years 16/17 and 17/18 as I cannot withdraw them on the 26th April 2022 along with my appeal letter. I had 30 days to appeal my fine which is dated 5th April 2022 (this is now over 30 days) When can I expect a response in relation to my paper self assessments and Appeal? I've checked the progress on my Gov UK profile and nothing is there - how do I know it's been received?

Hi,

The current timescale for processing paper returns is 8 weeks.

The online system does not show progress for all submissions, if you wish to confirm it has been received you would need to contact our Self Assessment team who can check if it has been received.

Self Assessment: general enquiries

Thank you.

I have also received yet another penalty notice for not returning my self assessment form in. I have never been self employed and have always paid PAYE which is clear to see on my Gov.UK tax page. I do not meet, and have never met the criteria for filling in a self assessment tax form, so why am I receiving these letters? I have written to the self assessment team several times explaining the situation and heard nothing back. I have phoned endless times and when I finally got through I was advised to write in explaining the issue! This difficulty with communication requires resolving as I have enough stress in life without needless tax demands. Someone please help !

Hi,
 

We are unable to access your records from this forum, if we are unable to withdraw the returns by telephone, you will receive a response in writing when your letter has been reviewed. Thank you.

Hi, I started NEA program (new enterprise program) in May 2021 , this was through the job centre. I started a new business in this time with support from the NEA. I wasn't self employed on the previous tax year for which i'm receiving late penalties for, I started trading around September 2021.  Please advise.

[Personal information removed - Admin] 

Hi,
 

If you did not trade during the year, and do not meet other SA criteria, you should contact our Self Assessment department who can review if a return is required. See link: Self Assessment: general enquiries  . Thank you.

Hi I am recieving late penalty notices for being self employed but I keep telling them I am not and sent them my p60s for proof.i only started recieving them when I moved to my present address which was just be lockdown,I sent off an appeal, I received it to day and it was rejected

Hi I have just received an overdue returns and penalties letter for self assesment totalling £3112.73 , I have never been self employed. The dates given for " needing to send a self assessment" are dates that I was on PAYE ,I need some more info or help with how I sort this because this is not right!!!

Hi
 

Mitchell Thomas ,   If you contact our Self Assessment deparment we can advise why we are looking for these tax returns. See link: Self Assessment: general enquiries    . Thank you.

Can you please advise how I can get through by phone to the Self Assessment department - I have been waiting for over 3 hours.

This has happened to me, too. Received a letter today, Overdue returns and penalties £2466.96 because I haven't filled in Self Assessment returns since 2019. I'm not self employed. I am working full time and paying tax through PAYE.