As part of its cost saving measures, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will no longer send certain duplicate tax forms to agents
The following forms will now only be sent to the taxpayer and if appropriate their employer. The agent copies will be withdrawn between September and December 2010. The forms withdrawn include:
• P2 – PAYE coding notice
• P800 – Tax calculation
• SA 250 – Letter advising the taxpayer of their Unique Taxpayer Reference and detailing the requirement to complete an annual Self Assessment tax return
• SA251 – Letter advising the customer that HMRC will not require future self assessment tax returns to be completed
The professional bodies will be making representations regarding the withdrawal of the agent’s copies of these forms but, in the meantime, it is important that clients keep their agents informed of all forms and correspondence from HMRC received.
Tax calculations – end of year PAYE reconciliations
As has already been well publicised, HMRC started sending out Forms P800 tax calculations for 2008/9 and 2009/10 to taxpayers from 6 September 2010. The purpose of the forms is to reconcile an individual’s total PAYE income and tax liabilities, rather than looking at the separate sources in isolation.
The types of taxpayer that will be most affected by this would typically include:
• Employees in receipt of new benefits in kind such as company cars
• People with more than one job
• Pensioners with multiple pensions
This process will continue until January 2011.
The forms will only be sent to taxpayers who have paid too much or too little tax. Agents will not be sent copies of these form so, if you receive one, it is important to send it to your agent.
Form P2 PAYE coding notices
In view of the problems in recent years with incorrect PAYE notice of coding, HMRC are to delay the issue of P2 Notice of Coding to self assessment taxpayers until all the 2010 Self Assessment returns filed by the due date (31 October 2010 for ‘paper’ returns and 31 January 2011 for returns filed online) have been ‘captured’. HMRC hope that this revision in timing will reduce the need for amendments. This appears to be a useful change if it removes some of the coding problems. Taxpayers and Agents will need to quickly check any notices they receive and ensure that they are revised by HMRC before the new tax year starts.
As mentioned above, agents will no longer receive copies of P2 Notices of Coding and, therefore, you should send copies of any coding notices received to your agent for checking as soon as they are received.
Forms SA250 and SA251
These forms are important as they notify taxpayers of whether or not they are required to complete a self-assessment tax return.
Once again, agent copies of these forms are to be withdrawn so, if you receive one, it is important to send it to your agent as soon as possible.
Action required – summary
In summary, it is now more important than ever to provide your tax agent with a copy of any communication from HMRC, or to get in touch when you receive any such item. We are seeing a trend towards HMRC communicating directly with taxpayers without involving their professional advisers, so please ensure you get in touch before replying to any communication from HMRC, as it is quite possible that your adviser has not been provided with a copy and is unaware of a query from HMRC.
We would take this opportunity to remind you that there are a number of fake e-mails still being circulated, purportedly from HMRC, advising of a tax rebate. HMRC never make such communications by e-mail, and if you receive one you should delete it immediately, do not click on any links, and ideally do not open, but view in a preview pane if necessary. Please read the earlier article on this subject for more details.
