UK tax collectors warn contractors about being ripped-off – and not by HMRC for a change The UK’s tax authorities have issued an official warning to contractors to watch out for self-assessment scams - and they don’t mean IR35 for a change. According to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), fraudsters see self-employed individuals as a good target and are pulling off a wide variety of cons around purported tax …
Well that's a crap way to warn people.
They need a celebrity who can take on the persona of a self employed person to front a national TV campaign.
Perhaps they could approach Lorraine Kelly and see if she's self employed and has some time in her schedule (assuming ITV don't object) ha ha.
from the usual
"There are serious legal procedings being taken against you by HMRC..." (or words to that effect)
scam calls that come throuought the year.
I have to wonder if the people voicing these message have a concience at all?
Nah. Don't be an idiot. They are doing to get rid of an HMRC tax demand.
Next year they'll be running scams with mindbogglingly confusing, contradictory pages filled with turgid text as well..
Q 26. Do you want to give all your money to a scammer?
[ ] Yes [ ] Maybe
Only tick Maybe if you have also completed and attached form K5368-P or K5368-Y, included the appropriate documentation and signed declaration of non-liability, were born before April 6th 1912 and are currently a Lloyd's underwriter.
(Oh shit I spent 6 hours doing form K5368-Y before reading the last bit)
Maybe if they did not insist on having your email and phone number, and instead only ever contacted "customers" by snail-mail then all these scam calls and mails would be shown up for what they are.
While they insist on data-slurping all your contact details, they are leaving everyone wide open to this abuse.
They dont sent demands for money etc via email or phone.
Ive been contracting for 5 years now, most of my family are self employed... The only emails I get are reminders that I need to fill in a VAT return and the occasional newsletter and thats only because I opted in.
All other communications come via post and are copied to my accountant so I generally ignore them unless the accountant mails me.
What they do is send you it in the form of an obsolete payment instrument known as a "cheque".
This happened to me about 5 years ago. A dodgy ex-employer didn't report my salary to HMRC or pay the tax on it, so they thought my other income which I paid basic rate tax on was covered by my personal allowance, when it wasn't, and refunded the tax I paid on it.
I wrote to them to say they had made a mistake, and they should probably ask for the money back. They ignored the letter. Which means I can now legally keep the money.
I've found that a lot of younger people have never seen a cheque before and don't know what to do with it. You have to take it to *your* bank, not necessarily the bank the cheque was drawn on, to pay it into your account. There are a few banks that let you pay in cheques by taking a photo of it with your phone "B" is one such bank that offers this.
Last time I had to pay a cheque in the bloody counter staff kept trying to make me use one of their machines. Why have a dedicated member of staff pointing you away from the queue (They all bleeding do it!), maybe if said person was behind the counter the queue wouldn't be so long.
We have a dedicated member of staff pointing you away from the queue (They all bleeding do it!), maybe if the rest of the team weren't all at lunch (The ones that are left drew the short straw) the queue wouldn't be so long.
FTFY
Icon - You stupid boy!
Like (I would expect) others here, I get a variety of notifications of my tax rebate. Some of them from authorities to whom never paid tax in the first place: most commonly the US IRS.
Separately, I also get a genuine tax rebate from HMRC most years: the biggest have been in the £10k ballpark - which is more than I earn in a less-good year! Those just arrive automatically in my bank account, without any need for a claim beyond filling out my self-assessment.
Talking of which, I need to do that. Haven't hurried this year's tax return, 'cos the rebate will be peanuts - as in ballpark £10 without the k.
"They are not going to give you money without you working for it, my friend. "
To be fair to HMRC, my experience over the last 10 years or so has always been positive if I've been due a refund. After the online SA calculation is produced, and if a refund is due I am asked to input my sort code and bank account number, and then the money has always been in my account within 7 days 'ish.
No real work or fighting has ever been needed.
> if someone contacts you offering a tax rebate, it’s just not going to be true
> because in the rare event you do have one, you are going to have to grip it
> with both hands and pull it out the clenched fist of the Inland Revenue.
I suppose that’s supposed to be funny, but really it’s just unhelpful. HMRC do proactively tell people who’ve paid too much tax, e.g. due to more than one PAYE job with confused tax codes. If you ignore the letter they will eventually post a cheque.
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