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Hi All,
I have applied for naturalization AN on May 21st 2016. I am surprised to see a letter from HRMC today (6 July 2016). It is regarding not filing self assessment for year ended in April 2013. They have fined me a huge amount 1500+100 for being late in doing the self assessment. Looks like my accountants have screwed me.

I have paid this fine immediately(today itself) through debit card. I have advised my former accountant (I am in perm job for last 4 years) to file self assessment for year ending 2013 at the earliest.

Is this going to affect the citizenship application ?

Please see my previous post on my tax issues (posted before I applied for naturalisation) http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... l#p1335361

Regards,
Human

Unfortunately it may well do, as stringent tests are now carried out for BC applications under the tougher good character requirements, cross-checking with HMRC records.

Thanks Casa for replying.Keeping fingers crossed.I have paid the corporation tax correctly. Due to the low income (just 2 months of IT contracting), I am sure that I don't owe anything to the HMRC as self assessment for the Ltd company. My fault is that i didnt do the self assessment. As I have paid that fine , Can it still be interpreted as bad character . Actually on the other hand HMRC owes me about 500 quids to my dissolved ltd company as overpaid corporation tax.

Is paying up quickly is anyway helpful in immigration law point of view ? Should I appeal (I can still do that) to HMRCciting reasons such as low income etc? If I can prove that penalty is unreasonable , Will that help me ? Please advise

I'll let someone else better placed to advise on tax discrepancies to respond.

Casa wrote:Unfortunately it may well do, as stringent tests are now carried out for BC applications under the tougher good character requirements, cross-checking with HMRC records.

Hi Casa,

You mentioned stringent tests being carried out. Do you have any concrete information on what has changed in the good character assessment procedure recently?

I would've thought they performed cross-checks with HMRC, Police National Computer, perhaps cretit score anyway.

Thanks

Hi dapto10, Could you please start your own thread to discuss your concerns. It is not good manners to hijack somebody else's post.

Dear experts, Can anybody please advise whether I should appeal this hmrc letter? I have already paid it . Should I inform this to home office ? Does it count as change of circumstances ? Any ideas on a possible strategy to get out of this mess.

It is quite strange that they brought this up after a long time! Maybe they only realised when the Home Office requested info from them about you. I am guessing but if I was in your shoes, I would probably wait and see and if anything , you can explain you were not aware of this and you demonstrated good character by paying it off straight away.

My accountant has done the self assessments now and I have paid the due taxes ( 150 + 250) & late payment penalty (1600) . But 2011/12 tax assessment can only be done in offline manner. According to my accountant , It would take at least 4 weeks to get this reflected in HMRC IT system.I am concerned that caseworker might not wait for the self assessments to be updated in HMRC system.

Is it a good idea to write to home office with proofs that taxes & penalties are paid now. Will it help ? Can somebody suggest.

Thanks imnewhere & casa for their valuable help.
As recommended by an Immigration consultant & for peace of mind.I would like to write to the HO with accountant letter stating that no taxes are due & printouts of confirmations from HMRC of tax and penalty payments. One of the self assessment pending is from 2011/12 ,which is too old to do an online return . So, I ended up filling the returns and posting it to HMRC. According to my accountant ,It will take a number of weeks to get reflected in HMRC IT system.

Anybody know the address of HO to write about change of circumstances ? If anybody who has been contacted by HMRC for further documents can provide me that address ? Any help will be highly appreciated.

Will request to keep all of us in loop . It seems interesting that you have received letter from HMRC for fine after such a long time which clearly reflects HO checks on you . Are you sure this was not brought to light during your ILR ?

Wondering how were you given ILR with such discrepancies?

The tax owed is paltry & both years I have paid significant PAYE taxes for the permanent job & corporation taxes for the ltd company .

2011/12 tax year tax owed is 150 pound ( This was my tier 1 extension year , But I didn't use the ltd company income as I had enough salary from the earlier permanent job)

2012/13 tax year tax owed is 250 pound ( There was no income form the ltd company this year . But I failed to give P45 from the Ltd company (I thought only perm job has p45) to the next permanent employee, so the tax calculated by the permanent employer was on a lower tax bracket).

Human wrote:Hi All,
I have applied for naturalization AN on May 21st 2016. I am surprised to see a letter from HRMC today (6 July 2016). It is regarding not filing self assessment for year ended in April 2013. They have fined me a huge amount 1500+100 for being late in doing the self assessment. Looks like my accountants have screwed me.

I have paid this fine immediately(today itself) through debit card. I have advised my former accountant (I am in perm job for last 4 years) to file self assessment for year ending 2013 at the earliest.

Is this going to affect the citizenship application ?

Please see my previous post on my tax issues (posted before I applied for naturalisation) http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... l#p1335361

Regards,
Human

Did you mention this contacting work in your AN application form?
You mentioned in one of your post that you didn't use this income for your T1 Visa applications. In my opinion, if you are doing a permanent job and getting paid through PAYE, then there was no need to mention this contacting work as you were not self employed at the time of sending your application to HO.
Form AN1 just asks to give the details of jobs within last 10 years, if some one is getting paid through PAYE and there is no question or space to provide the details of past self employment.
They simply ask are you employed or self employed and if employed then provide the details of employment for the last 10 years for the PAYE jobs.
In my opinion, applicants are making their lives difficult by providing the irrelevant details. I may be wrong, but it's my opinion.
To simplify more what I want to say is that, if someone is asking your dad's name then just tell your dad's name and don't include your grand dad's name in the space provided for your dad's name.

Hi Human, any uodate on this?

Got approval (dated 26th aug) last week. Best of luck to all.

Rizcon wrote:They simply ask are you employed or self employed and if employed then provide the details of employment for the last 10 years for the PAYE jobs.
In my opinion, applicants are making their lives difficult by providing the irrelevant details. I may be wrong, but it's my opinion.
To simplify more what I want to say is that, if someone is asking your dad's name then just tell your dad's name and don't include your grand dad's name in the space provided for your dad's name.

The employment history question relates to all economic activity; both employed work and self-employed work.

Thanks for updating - makes me hopeful - I applied in early august

Di you contact the HO and notify them of the penalty?

I too am in the same boat - HMRC fine for late submission. Did not ever claim any points for any HO application for this and cleared this immediately. However, my penalty came in before my application

Yes. I got a letter from my accountant which says that 2013 returns are done electronically & for 2012 it has been submitted as paper returns . Also attached a screenshot of hmrc portal which state that I don't owe any money.I posted them to HO. But not sure whether this move helped . It might have even resulted in a delay for processing the application.

Didn't you appeal ? I have appealed and they have withdrawn 1500 fine. Read somewhere that whatever trivial reason you give , HMRC normally withdrew such fines as an investigation will take them lot of money and effort. Don't worry now .I don't think penalty notice is a problem , if you paid promptly.

If you haven't done already , You can request your hmrc gateway id (which will come in post in 2/3 days) to view your self- assesment portal online. Also call hmrc (in the number given in penalty notice) ask for an update or a date on which your case will be taken up . You can even get a letter from hmrc stating that your paper returns (for 2012 or earlier) will be inspected on a certain date. If required , submit this letter to HO. I contacted HO on the Liverpool address mentioned in application confirmation letter.

Hope this helps. All the best.

Thanks. I did pay in promptly so hoping this will be ok.

On a separate note - what excuse did you give? I think i'll wait till my Citizenship application is processed before challenging

The reason was no tax return was required as the income was from sources where tax is deducted at source.They accepted above excuse.

Here is what it means ,Initial part of the tax year , I was on a perm job (taxes deducted as paye), Only for 2 months I contracted through my LTD company (No paye tax was deductible if the job is viewed separately) .