Vat Surcharge - beat this one!

Yazi

Received letter from HMRC saying that owe £600 vat.

Called them and it relates to qtr to Nov 00. Yes thats the year 2000.
Apparently its a late payment surcharge and they say we need to pay it
'quickly as its needed to pay for essential services from which we all benefit.'
Never received any chasing letters or anything since then.
Apparantly it was in one of their 'dormant accounts'....

Any words of wisdom for my reply letter?

Monsoon

I would post this on AccountingWeb Any Answers too. The more people who can help come up with a genius reply to this outrageous request, the better

Surely its statute time barred?! Or does that not count for tax?

I would first find out if they can actually chase this after 11 years. If no, write back telling them tough luck.

If that is a no-go, next thing is to ask them to prove the debt is owed. As the business is not obliged to keep records that far back I'm sure this debt must be time barred, because they might not be able to prove or disprove against their own records.

So, look for the thing that says they are out of time and send a suitably scathing reply!

slackda

Sounds like a scam......

pretty sure the VAT man only goes back 4 Years. at least they have with our recent investigation..

what Bank details have been quoted on the letter to ask you to pay to?

jorja1986

Would definately check the validity of the letter.

Our organisation have had several emails along those lines - all fraud.

Contact HMRC (not number on the phone) and speak to them direct letters take too long, it is important that they know if it is a scam it will hopefully prevent other people from being victims.

andrewtdk

I think they probably can go back this far because im not certain there is a time limit for going back as far as tax is concerned, although i believe there is a limit for NI.

HMRC can get thinks wrong so its worth checking the debt actualy stands

Yazi

Thanks for your replies

There is no account number to pay to but it asked me to call 0845 3088759 which I did and they said to write to Surcharge Appeals, Crownhill Ct, Tailyour Rd, Plymouth, PL6 5BZ.

Just going to call the HMRC number too.

Yazi

Ok...update....

Last July I asked for proof that we owe this surcharge....by copies of original letters and chasing letters from 2000 to 2011 (of which there were none..)
No update since then except chasing letters which I replied to. They promised to fish out the microfiche..(you oldies will remember this..) which apparently they will now not do..
So it boils down to the fact that they can just quote figures...

Oh well...
Need to pay this now as debt collection agency is now chasing..

Lets hope that in 5 years they dont send a letter saying we owe from 15 years ago....
Anything can happen eh?

Monsoon

Yazi wrote: »

So it boils down to the fact that they can just quote figures...

Oh well...
Need to pay this now as debt collection agency is now chasing..

That sounds really wrong. I would not pay! If they cannot prove that you owe a debt that is a decade old, then you should not pay it and I would take it to court.

Do not set a precedent for letting them get away with this - and good luck!

Monsoon

Also: get your MP involved. That is what they are there for. This really, really, sounds like a scam. DO NOT be intimidated by the debt collection agency.

Yazi

They say they have provided proof by sending a letter sort of as follows.

***This is what your vat liability was as at this date... You then paid this amount... on this date... and this amount was sent later resulting in a surcharge on the overdue amount...**

It appears that the vat was paid...but in more than one instalment.
So they are chasing on the surcharge bit.

Its just that I have no way of proving that it was paid...and what was the actual liability including the surcharge..except for their figures in the letter.

Of course if we owed it we would have paid at the time.... Which is the concern..

Yazi

When I say "They" I mean HMRC.

Its not a scam as I have spoken to HMRC and they say alot of these smaller amounts are coming up as due, even from 10 years ago.. and they are payable...

They cannot comment on why I have not received any reminders...Its never their department....!

Think I need to try that...

Monsoon

Wow.

It's really unreasonable for them to be bringing this up out of the woodwork after ten years.

I don't know what can be done, but I would definitely contact my MP, this is bl00dy outrageous.

De6

I would hit them with the three year capping rule, they have just made one of my clients file a missed return and refuse to give him his refund back (he paid and assessment) as it is more than three years old.

I have a copy of the letter if you would like to see it

Deb

Yazi

I was advised by HMRC to pay the money to the Debt collection centre and continue the query with them as it has now gone to the Debt people the HMRC are not really interested anymore and in their opinion it is payable..end of


Is it worth spending more time and ultimately more money on a case we are very likely to lose.....?

Monsoon

see here

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/anyone-else-had-one-these-recently

Yazi

Hi..Update again....

Following your advice, I wrote to our local MP who took this up and wrote to HMRC and the chancellor of the exchequer!

Received a letter today and our appeal has been successful.

The letter states."As a note we do have a rule that if a tax payer has not been pursued for a debt for four years and the amount is under a certain level we can remit the amount."

Now why couldnt they have said this a year ago?

Thank you!!

Yas

Monsoon

Yazi wrote: »

Hi..Update again....

Following your advice, I wrote to our local MP who took this up and wrote to HMRC and the chancellor of the exchequer!

Received a letter today and our appeal has been successful.

The letter states."As a note we do have a rule that if a tax payer has not been pursued for a debt for four years and the amount is under a certain level we can remit the amount."

Now why couldnt they have said this a year ago?

Thank you!!

Yas

HURRAH!!!!!! :thumbup: :001_tt1: :thumbup1: :001_tt1: :thumbup:


Perseverance FTW!

Rinske

Really glad it's sorted and you didn't have to pay to be fair!

Well done on your perseverance!!! :thumbup1: