SAM70080 - Manage work: customer service: help with self calculation after 31 October
Background
It is our policy to give help to customers to enable them to complete their self-calculations. But we need to ensure that the benefits of filing a paper return by 31 October after the end of the return year, are both real and visible to the public. A paper return filed after 31 October will have been received after the filing date and the customer will be liable to an automatic late filing penalty.
Customer options – Late paper Self-Assessment Filing
After 31 October, customers have four options when filing a paper Self-Assessment Return. They can:
- Complete and file their tax return online. All of the software and online forms will calculate their tax liability for them. They will have until 31 January to file online, without incurring an automatic late filing penalty
- Attempt the self calculation and come back for help if they are having difficulty with particular points. The paper return should have been filed by 31 October, so they will be liable to an automatic late filing penalty
- Complete the self calculation without our help. We will correct it if it is wrong, but cannot guarantee to do so in time to tell them, how much to pay by 31 January. The paper return should have been filed by 31 October, so they will be liable to an automatic late filing penalty
- Submit the return without doing the self calculation. If so, we will still calculate the tax due, but cannot guarantee to do so in time to tell them, how much to pay by 31 January. The paper return should have been filed by 31 October, so they will be liable to an automatic late filing penalty
Guidance regarding penalties for the tax years 2010-11 and later, can be found under SAM61200 onwards.
Customers seeking help
Your approach to customers seeking help after 31 October, depends on the extent to which the customers have attempted to self-calculate.
If the customer is having difficulty with particular points on the self-calculation, you should provide assistance. The customer must have attempted to complete their SA return in full and be able to give the details from their completed return over the telephone.
SA Tax Calculators are available on the SEES menu in excel and can be used to assist customers with their self-calculation on the telephone.
If the customer has made little or no attempt to complete the self-calculation and asks to be guided through the whole form, or substantial parts of it, you should refuse the request, unless the taxpayer is incapable of completing the self-calculation - (see ‘Extra Assistance' below)
Advise that the 31 October was the deadline for paper returns to have been filed, and for customers who wanted HMRC to work out their tax for them in time, to be told how much to pay by 31 January
Advise that if the paper return is filed late, an automatic late filing penalty may be charged
Advise of the benefits of online filing
Extra Assistance
If a customer is incapable of completing the self-calculation and asks you to complete it for them, you should do so. This will usually only arise, where similar help has been needed with completion of the return.
Customers that require extra assistance, include those who:
Are blind or partially sighted
Have physical disabilities which prevent them from writing easily, for example arthritis
Have learning difficulties
Have difficulties with reading and writing
Do not speak or read English easily
You will need to use your discretion to decide whether individual customers are unable to complete forms themselves, but it is not necessary to ask for proof. If you are in doubt, seek your manager’s, or a colleague’s advice.
If the customer is deemed to require additional tailored support, please see:
Query about amount payable on 31 January
Customers who file returns after 31 October and whose return is not processed by early December, will be sent a reminder in December. This will be form SA309A or SA309C, for individuals or trusts.
We will calculate their bill in due course. But because their return was received after the deadline for paper returns and for Revenue Calculation on 31 October, we may not be able to do so, until after 31 January.
Those customers who prefer to leave the calculation to HMRC, may ask for advice on what first payment on account to make by 31 January. If so, you can advise as per the below:
Self-employed customers to make a payment based on whatever they paid last year, adjusted to the extent that they estimate their profits have increased or decreased
PAYE customers to pay 20 per cent of any untaxed income
In either case, stress this is only a rough estimate and will not necessarily be correct and that in future, the best way to be sure of the correct figure is by either:
File their paper self-assessment return by the 31 October, if they want us to calculate their tax bill
Complete and file their tax return online - this is the preferred option. All of the software and online forms, will calculate their tax liability for them. They will have until 31 January to file online, without incurring an automatic late filing penalty