SAM120120 - Returns: returns issue: reactivating an SA year (for tax years 2010-11 onwards)

For the tax years 2010-2011 onwards, if a customer contacts us to say that they do not meet the SA criteria for a particular year, we can agree that they do not need to complete a tax return for the relevant year(s) and, if necessary, make the record dormant. If the customer has an NPS record, the ‘No SA Criteria’ indicator on the Maintain Return Summary screen should have been changed to ‘Y’ when the record was made dormant and this will prompt an automatic update to be sent to NPS.

However, it may become apparent later that the customer did need to complete a return for the year. For example, the customer may tell us that he now needs to complete a return. He may send a completed return for the year, or a work item may be created on NPS indicating that the customer should be in SA for a particular year.

If such a case is identified, you should reactivate the SA year by following the guidance ‘Reactivating an SA year’ (Action Guide) at SAM120121 for tax years 2010-11 and 2011-12 and SAM120122 for tax years 2012-13 onwards. Note: If you need to reactivate more than one SA year, you will need to take the relevant actions for each year.

In the majority of cases you will also need to reactivate the customer’s record by following the guidance ‘Reactivating a dormant record’ (Action Guide) at SAM101093.

As part of the action required to reactivate an SA year, where a customer has an NPS record, it is important to update the ‘No SA Criteria’ indicator on the ‘Maintain Return Summary’ screen. The indicator should be changed back to ‘N’ and this will prompt NPS to update the reconciliation screen to show the year as ‘Reconciled - SA’. If that year has been reconciled on NPS you will need to review the reconciliation position.

For the tax years 2010-11 and 2011-12, a new return is not issued as the original notice to file a return has not been legally withdrawn. The customer is asked to file a return in the SA822 letter which gives information about how to file the return and the date by which the return should be filed. If the letter is issued before the standard filing dates those dates will still apply, but if the letter is issued after the standard filing dates have passed, a period of 30 days is given to file the return. In these cases, where a late filing penalty has been cancelled for the year it will not be re-imposed but later penalties will be charged if the return is filed after the new filing date stated in the letter.

For the tax years 2012-13 onwards, a new notice to file is sent in the form of the SEES letter SA833 and the new date for filing will be the later of 3 months and 7 days or the original filing dates.

If you are reactivating an SA year where a return has previously been issued, and we agreed that it did not need to be completed but now require a return, for tax years 2012-13 onwards, the due dates for payment will be the original due date and the return filing date will be 3 months and 7 days from the issue of the SEES letter SA833. If no response was received to the notice, or the response was received after the time limit for notifying chargeability following a withdrawal notice (see SAM120115) and we have found that a return now needs to be filed, it will be treated as Failure to notify (FTN) case. You should not issue a new tax return to the customer, for tax years 2012-13 onwards, as the SEES letter SA833 will be treated as the notice to file.

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Note: From October 2013, where there is a UTR on the NPS record, the system, will in certain circumstances, attempt to reactivate a dormant SA record from NPS Work Management items WMI217 and WMI236 and from April 2014, the system will attempt to reactivate a dormant SA record from WMI117. The system will issue forms SA316 (Notice to file a return) for these cases. For WMI117 and WMI236 cases, the SA316 for the relevant year will be issued. This informs the customer that they need to complete a return because they either owe tax from their PAYE income or now meet one or more of the SA criteria.