General Chat

and she showed me a tax letter that she owed nearly £400 for 2003- 2024. Got to the 16th Dec to pay it. Don't know what happens after the 16th Dec? My mum is on pension credit and 96 years old. My brother is now going to spend hours on the phone as i know she is not the only one and you cant get through to them

That's awful, Tylersgran.
Have they given any reason how/why your mum owes this money, or are they just demanding it?

CAB or Age Concern may be able to help

HMRC has definitely gone downhill. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing!

My niece works in Dubai, but pays tax here.
She used to be able to fill in a tax from online.
Last year, they said she had to fill out a paper form.

'Easy' you'd think, just print out the online form, fill it in and send it off.
Of course not. They'd removed the online form she had to fill in.

My sister spent hours trying to phone HMRC, to send a form to either her, or my niece.
When she eventually got through, she was told to fill in the online form and print it out. Sister pointed out it was no longer there, hence her phone call.
HMRC admin was unaware of this, and said they'd send one.

They didn't.

Sister eventually got one from a specialist tax lawyer!

I wonder how many people paid fines for not getting their tax forms in on time?

Although there are far fewer than there used to be, there are still quite a lot of offices in major towns where you can speak to a human being. If your brother lives reasonably near a town it would be less of a hassle to go and see them. You can find the nearest one by googling "tax offices near me" and putting in your post code. Good luck!

Public counters went some time ago.

I assume the years are a typo as they can’t claim tax back to 2003.

Many of the tax offices around have closed or are in the process of closing with staff being moved miles away.

Double check that this isn't a Scam before you part with any money :-0

Edit

Don't phone the number on the letter unless you are sure it is a genuine HMRC number

It may well be a scam as I believe the official final date for payment is 31st Jan., not 16th December.
Don't use the number on the letter, Google HMRC or use the number from a letter you know is genuine, also Google the number on the letter as it may have been reported as a scam.
Is the address on the letter the same as she has had from HMRC previously?
Is there a calculation on the letter showing how the underpayment asises? It may claim to be for rental income, capital gains, higher rate tax or something like that which she has never had taxable income from.

Brian is correct the final date for payments is 31st January as I well know from us running our own business.
This does sound like a scam to me too so tread cautiously. :-)

Other things to look for to confirm it's a scam:-

Who is the letter addressed to? If it's not addressed to your Mother as Mrs ...... then it's wrong, it absolutely should not say dear customer, account holder etc

Are there any errors with grammar, punctuation etc? It should be perfectly written.

Does it show her national insurance number and / or any other reference which she recognises? It should do.

And Brian is spot on about the date too.