maxb

I'm just a member of the public, not associated with HMRC in any way, but if you have an obligation to submit a tax return for 20/21 and have still not done so, I think you need to urgently take professional advice. Near the end of the tax return is a section to declare that the return includes estimated or provisional figures - given this option exists, it seems difficult to justify not submitting a return at all based on unavailability of final figures. I fear that whoever has been informing you that you were unable to submit a return at all may be incorrect and have done you a great disservice. Again, I'm not associated with HMRC in any way, but I think your chances of a successful appeal may have been damaged by not supplying at least a return with provisional figures at any point in the 3 years since the deadline passed. But, this being an anonymous internet forum, we can't know the fine details of your case - a professional advisor ought to be able to give you a better idea of whether you have reasonable grounds for appeal.

Regarding the seeming unfair, it is certainly true that in this particular case, the different rules for taxing State Pension result in a less favourable tax position than if the payment was pay from an employer. On the other hand, you generally can't ask an employer to pay you more frequently, whereas apparently the DWP can be asked to pay out State Pension weekly - so you technically became entitled to those 3 weeks during the 24/25 tax year, even if they were batched up into a later combined payment, and the tax is based on the weekly entitlement. The practice of taxing State Pension weekly even when paid out 4-weekly does help the taxpayer in a different scenario: in a tax year that happened to span 14 4-weekly payment days, instead of 13 (possible if the year ends align just so with payment days), tax reckoned on payments received would push further towards higher tax bands than it should, including 3 extra weeks within the tax year. Reckoning the tax based on weekly accrual fixes that problem.

The page at https://www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment should, after a couple of questions, take you to an online form for re-registering for Self Assessment using your existing login and UTR.

Hi.
I'm just a member of the public, but I think this "adviser" has completely misunderstood and given you entirely incorrect information.
I know the underpayments boxes that are being referred to here, and they are strictly for when tax due in respect of one tax year, ends up being collected via pay deductions in a different tax year.
I am assuming from the way you wrote your post, that both the P45 and the later payment occurred between 6th April 2023 and 5th April 2024.
In that case, it seems like a simple case of additional payment received after issue of a P45.
The explanatory notes for form SA102 (the paper version of the employment part of the online tax return, which can be found at Self Assessment: Employment (SA102) this case: >
If you received any payments after your employer gave you a P45 or P60, these should also be included in box 1. The "box 1" referred to is "Pay from this employment". Therefore, we have an official document saying that the correct way to fill in - or, in this case, amend - your tax return is to add up the total pay from your P45 and later payslip, and include the sum in the section of the return about this employment.
Similarly, you would also add up the tax already deducted from your P45, and from the later payslip, for the next box.
So, you need to amend the figures you have already entered in the employment section - not add anything in any new sections/boxes.

I don't think your Personal Allowance can ever be reduced due to tax owed in a previous tax year. My guess is your PAYE tax code has been reduced. The misunderstanding probably comes from the fact that for many people, their PAYE tax code is made up of the Personal Allowance only - but in fact, the PAYE tax code is an overall summary of every part of your tax affairs that needs to be taken into account to deduct the right amount of tax from pay. In summary then, the reduction of the Personal Allowance due to earnings over £100k, and the additional earnings deduction to repay tax owed in a previous year, will both operate independently. This means that the combined tax free amount for PAYE (considering both Personal Allowance and tax owed) can go NEGATIVE as total earnings approach £125,140. There is another detail to be aware of, too: the PAYE tax code system by itself does not automatically adapt to Personal Allowance reduction over £100k. In the year a taxpayer receives a pay rise that moves them over £100k, or further towards £125,140, unless HMRC are notified of the increase in the full year's predicted earnings during the year, resulting in a changes tax code, PAYE will under-deduct throughout the year, leaving a balance to be paid at Self Assessment. In subsequent years, HMRC's earnings estimate for that employment will be updated based on the previous year, so it will start to be coded in to your tax code.

My question is not answered there.

I think you should talk to HMRC as soon as possible, so you can ask them what happened, and find out the current status as they see it - and maybe get them to fix things. Webchat is probably the easiest way to get hold of them, and the "Self Assessment: general enquiries" link has been posted in several previous messages in this thread. The chat starts out connected to an automated system, but just tell it "talk to a human" (and queue for one to be available). One thing that stood out in your message... you said your tax code had been altered, but not whether you meant your current one, or one which will apply from 6th April, in 2 weeks. Tax from the 23/24 return, if being collected via tax code, would happen from 6th April 2025 i.e. tax year 25/26. If it the tax code alteration you mentioned was for the current (i.e. 24/25) tax year, it was likely for some other purpose than collecting tax from your 23/24 return. The notice from HMRC telling you about your new tax code should also explain how it has been calculated. If you don't have it on paper, try to see if you can find it online - it's in the same HMRC website where you fill in and submit your return, under the heading "View PAYE coding notices". But in any case, you need to get in touch with HMRC urgently, as if, for any reason, you can't get the penalty removed, right now you're still accruing additional interest on it.

I understand you need the UIR to claim EIS income tax relief after purchasing the shares... But many years later when selling for a gain and claiming EIS disposal relief, that seems to be just a matter of declaring a code OTH other claim or election in the capital gains pages, and providing an explanation in the additional information. If there is specific guidance defining what needs to appear in that additional information, where can this guidance be found? (The SA108 Notes don't mention this relief specifically at all.)

It sounds like you are referring to the "starting rate for savings". That in particular isn't something I've received, but allowances of this type are automatically implemented in the online self assessment calculation and don't require you to do anything to claim them, beyond filling in your income data. There is an option to view your full calculation before submitting a return online, which should let you confirm that it really has been included.

Once the tax year is complete, you can start filling in your self assessment online - using estimates at first if need be - and view your calculation as many times as you like, without submitting the return. This is by far the most complete online "simulation" of the whole tax calculation. If you require a projected sum before the tax year is over, then unfortunately I don't know of a good resource - I've typically fallen back to some elaborate spreadsheets implementing just the bits of the calculation relevant to me.