Income tax for my mother - help.

I have today received a demand from HMRC to pay a £300 fine for not filling in a tax return for my husband after he died in 2012.
It took nearly a year to sort out that I did not need to fill one in.
Last September I had a form to tell me that £1800 of fines had been cancelled and I would not get any more demands. Fortunately all the paperwork was still in the same file, so I could just get it out and quote from the letter.
The woman told me that I would get a letter telling me that the fine had been cancelled and I would not get any more letters. Cue hollow laugh. She said that whoever did it last year had probably not pressed the final button!

I've only just been, charleygirl. Perhaps it would help if I wore my new specs instead of the old ones

rosequartz- you and I need to book an appointment with Spec Savers! I also missed the date but I note that we are not alone.

I didn't look at the date!

Fines for everthing these days

It does not sound correct, they are notorious for making mistakes. The official said to me on the phone when we were trying to sort out DH's tax bill of over £4,000 which turned out to be a mistake:

"Your husband is responsible for sorting out how much tax he owes even if he is PAYE"
A bit later in the conversation she said (referring to themselves)
"The trouble is the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"
So I said "if you don't know what you are doing how can you expect a layperson to be able to sort it out?"
In fact they didn't know what they were doing because he owed about £80 not thousands. It was a shock though.

Why did she have to fill in a self-assessment form, should she be PAYE?
They should put any demands on hold whilst this is being queried.

Just read the OP again and realised that the post was dated Sept. 2012, as well as the year that for which they say that tax is due.

I hope it is all sorted out by now.

Yes, I think it must be a fine. They are pretty draconian in demanding you pay a penalty if you don't get the reurn in on time. Have you phoned them to see if they can explain it? The bereavement could soften them into waiving it.

This is an old thread, but what I am wondering is if the tax was a fine for not sending the form in on time. That's what happens when you get into a dispute with the HMRC. It tokk me over a year to sort out the tax situation after my husband died. They were threatening me, and the fine went up to £1200, which I seem to remember was the greatest amount they could charge.

I do not think that she is earning enough to pay tax on BS accounts. You should enquire there also as she may be due a refund.

They are very helpful when you ring and I am sure this is what you should do.

If you go onto the HMRC website you can download a form called an Authorising Agent form. - fill this out and get the person you are going to act for to sign it and post it with a covering letter to them, check the address as it's different if you have added correspondance.
Give them a month , yes a month, to get it on their system, then you can phone them on the person's behalf and hopefully sort things out.
I've just done this for my Mum and it worked very well.

As it is so long since I retired, I googled 'Disputes with HMRC' - the website shows you all the methods of appealing against decisions, but I doubt very much if you will need to do more than write a letter or ask for clarification on the telephone.
Perhaps next year you could ask your mother to nominate you as her agent on her SA form.

I found my Tax Office very helpful when I rang them as I did not understand how they had arrived at the figure they gave me and they were very kind - plain speaking but friendly . Alternatively perhaps your CAB or AgeUK could help.

Maries Are you near to a local Tax office where you can speak face to face with someone?
When I was self-employed and doing my own tax return online in one year I disputed their assessment and after letters and threats to go to the ombudsman I got a refund of over £1200.
Income now below tax level and last year I got a £500 refund without claiming.
Maybe there is a red star on my records!!

If her income is as you say, it's below the guaranteed minimum, above which she should be claiming pension credits. I can't imagine how HMRC have managed to calculate that your mother owes so much tax. This is well worth a challenge.
If you want to find out what she could be entitled to in pension credits, go to:
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/PensionCredit/DG_10018692

P.S I don't know why you say the Inspector won't tell her how they arrived at her assessment - she should have had it spelled out on her demand. You may have been dealing with some badly-trained Revenue Executive, so insist on speaking to an Inspector

There is nothing on the paper as to how the figure was derived, just a statement that she owes them £1200 and they will be taking it from her money at £25 a week from this coming tax year.

Thank you for that. I will get on the letter. My mother has never paid tax in previous years as her income has not been above the allowance. when dad was alive he paid a small amount on his work pension but mum does not have his whole works pension just a small amount from it.

All their savings were tax paid by the BS accounts they had them in ( I might have thought she could claim some back rather than the other way round).

I cant see what she is being assessed on and no idea what she must have put down - and she doesnt know either.

I will write a letter.

P.S I don't know why you say the Inspector won't tell her how they arrived at her assessment - she should have had it spelled out on her demand. You may have been dealing with some badly-trained Revenue Executive, so insist on speaking to an Inspector.
Could the tax have related to the estate of your late father?

Write to them, getting her to sign the letter, explaining that she is elderly and must have got confused, as her personal allowance more than covers her income. There is no point in dealing with the Collector of Taxes - they just get instructions from the Inspector of Taxes on how much is due. However, it is worth writing to the Collector to say she is in dispute with the Inspector and ask for them to delay any proceedings.
What has happened in previous years?
You may like to get your mother to sign a letter of authority for you to act for her and enclose it with your letter to the inspector - then you will be able to speak about her affairs on the phone, etc.