How is it possible for a person on Pension Credit to be paying £83 a week tax?

If people don't submit the facts, or tell HMRC when something is wrong, it's a bit much to blame them for not realising their error. There's an appeal mechanism. Help him to use it: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/complaints-appeals/how-to-appeal/direct-tax.htm#2 He is well outside the usual 30 day period, but his illness should be sufficient reason to ensure HMRC will agreed to review his situation.

Your friend is only 64. He is not a pensioner, and many would not consider him to be particularly old. 1. HMRC makes a determination of the tax due where a person fails to submit a tax return. This is very reasonable since tax liabilities are established from returns. If there was no mechanism for HMRC to put a charge in place in the absence of a return, many people would not bother to file. You say your friend was clearly operating at a loss. What is clear is that he was operating at a profit because you said that working as a tutor was better than claiming benefits. If your friend would need to claim benefits if he wasn't working, then he was clearly getting income from working. 2. There is no need for a legal mechanism to challenge a determination. A determination is in place of a tax return and can be displaced by a tax return. As soon as your friend submits his return the tax shown as due will be replaced by the tax shown in his return. There is no need for a right to challenge an amount when you already have the right to change it. 3. Why should the rest of the taxpayers who pay tax on time, fund your friends reluctance to comply with his obligations. When he complies with his obligations, he will pay whatever tax is due. As a taxpayer you should be grateful for that. As a friend, if you are this concerned that you are paying, by proxy, for the cost of the collection process, why don't you pay his tax for him? That way, neither you nor the rest of the UKs diligent taxpayers are paying for your friend tardiness. I am sorry if this all sounds a little harsh, but blaming HMRC for something that can easily be rectified by doing what is required of you, and then looking for sympathy, sticks in my craw. We all have responsibilities, and as bad as HMRC is (you just need to look at some of the posts on here by one of their employees for examples of ignorance and incompetence), you cannot blame it for your friend's predicament. Send in the tax return, and everything will flow from there.

The UK is a shithole.

Simply put the solution is as follows: 1. It cannot continue this is appalling! HMRC are not ogres if the right people are spoken to 2. Get him make a much smaller voluntary payment 3. If he is paying something they will be lenient and bailiffs are prevented from action when it comes to vulnerable or elderly people 4. Contact Citizens advice bureau or any reputable debt agency or debt management company. They will write on his behalf and HMRC will generally play along with this.A private debt management company will take a percentage of anything offered but it will not alter what your friend pays monthly, though such a situation would mean he pays for longer, but because the CAB currently take a long time to see people such a route may be initially preferable for peace of mind quickly before changing later 5. If he has few assets and owes less than £15,000 he may even get a debt relief order (a cheaper version bankruptcy) an not have to pay anything - at his age he is unlikely to be worried about spoiling a credit record which is already downgraded simply because he is aged and retired anyway.

Communication is what is required here. filling in a tax return does not require professioanl help, my son and my husband are both self employed and do their tax returns themselves, they do it online- easily Why did he not phone them and ask for help, or ask a relative or friend for help, the forms are very straightforward, eg earnings, expenses, profit etc He can't expect HMRC to be mind readers, he should never have let it go to debt collection A simple letter to HMRC,.e-mail or phone call would have prevented all this hassle Do remember that if he was claiming benefits, many of them are classed as taxable income too, so benefits are added to earnings and that's the amount of money that is taxable, He can easily phone the debt collection agancy too, and ask for his payments to be staggered,but he needs to communicate with people and agencies rather than bury his head in the sand less his personal allowance off course

Until the tax return is submitted no information has passed to HMRC. Complete and send in the damned return. Once the return is in the assessment will be adjusted. You have from 6 April to 31 January to send the return in - are you seriously saying he was incapable of basic paper work for ten months?

Your friend is only 64. He is not a pensioner, and many would not consider him to be particularly old. 1. HMRC makes a determination of the tax due where a person fails to submit a tax return. This is very reasonable since tax liabilities are established from returns. If there was no mechanism for HMRC to put a charge in place in the absence of a return, many people would not bother to file. You say your friend was clearly operating at a loss. What is clear is that he was operating at a profit because you said that working as a tutor was better than claiming benefits. If your friend would need to claim benefits if he wasn't working, then he was clearly getting income from working. 2. There is no need for a legal mechanism to challenge a determination. A determination is in place of a tax return and can be displaced by a tax return. As soon as your friend submits his return the tax shown as due will be replaced by the tax shown in his return. There is no need for a right to challenge an amount when you already have the right to change it. 3. Why should the rest of the taxpayers who pay tax on time, fund your friends reluctance to comply with his obligations. When he complies with his obligations, he will pay whatever tax is due. As a taxpayer you should be grateful for that. As a friend, if you are this concerned that you are paying, by proxy, for the cost of the collection process, why don't you pay his tax for him? That way, neither you nor the rest of the UKs diligent taxpayers are paying for your friend tardiness. I am sorry if this all sounds a little harsh, but blaming HMRC for something that can easily be rectified by doing what is required of you, and then looking for sympathy, sticks in my craw. We all have responsibilities, and as bad as HMRC is (you just need to look at some of the posts on here by one of their employees for examples of ignorance and incompetence), you cannot blame it for your friend's predicament. Send in the tax return, and everything will flow from there.

Simply put the solution is as follows: 1. It cannot continue this is appalling! HMRC are not ogres if the right people are spoken to 2. Get him make a much smaller voluntary payment 3. If he is paying something they will be lenient and bailiffs are prevented from action when it comes to vulnerable or elderly people 4. Contact Citizens advice bureau or any reputable debt agency or debt management company. They will write on his behalf and HMRC will generally play along with this.A private debt management company will take a percentage of anything offered but it will not alter what your friend pays monthly, though such a situation would mean he pays for longer, but because the CAB currently take a long time to see people such a route may be initially preferable for peace of mind quickly before changing later 5. If he has few assets and owes less than £15,000 he may even get a debt relief order (a cheaper version bankruptcy) an not have to pay anything - at his age he is unlikely to be worried about spoiling a credit record which is already downgraded simply because he is aged and retired anyway.

Communication is what is required here. filling in a tax return does not require professioanl help, my son and my husband are both self employed and do their tax returns themselves, they do it online- easily Why did he not phone them and ask for help, or ask a relative or friend for help, the forms are very straightforward, eg earnings, expenses, profit etc He can't expect HMRC to be mind readers, he should never have let it go to debt collection A simple letter to HMRC,.e-mail or phone call would have prevented all this hassle Do remember that if he was claiming benefits, many of them are classed as taxable income too, so benefits are added to earnings and that's the amount of money that is taxable, He can easily phone the debt collection agancy too, and ask for his payments to be staggered,but he needs to communicate with people and agencies rather than bury his head in the sand less his personal allowance off course