Recovering Tax on the Halcrow Trust Payouts

[sreevesjc]

Following the advice given in Newsletter No.3: I haven't received or had a need to fill in a tax return for over 20 years. Usually a letter to HMRC informing them of tax deductible subscriptions to professional bodies has sufficed.

I started off with this link on HMRC website: https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/service/self-assessment?action=enrol&step=enterdetails&services=self-assessment

It failed as I didn't have a 10 digit UTR (unique taxpayer reference)!

So I then tried this one: https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/SA1?dept-name=&sub-dept-name=&location=43&origin=http://www.hmrc.gov.uk

The only criterion I can think that applies is: 'employed and want to claim expenses or professional subscriptions of £2,500 or more'. I have now got one stage further and have at least managed to submit the form. The no-reply email states that the UTR will come by post in 6 to 8 weeks. So I will see what happens next...

[Robert Every]

Assistance with completion of tax returns can be found in Newsletter No:3. However I will add that the P60 certificates have now been issued, these show net payments from the Trust after the deduction of the employer's NIC and this figure without adjustment may be included in Box 3 of page 2 of the Additional Information pages of current tax returns. In these circumstances it may only be necessay to show the net P60 figure as comming from the Halcrow Trust in the Additional Information box on page 4.

[HeatherF]

Has anyone tried filing in their 2012/2013 tax returns yet? any suggestions re the Halcrow loan note distibution can we claim back the NIC contribution paid?

[Jane Tordoff]

I think Mike has filled in forms to claim it back.  If you let me have your email address I will ask him to email you direct.

[Jane Tordoff]

Mike filled in the amount of NIS deducted in the answer to question No 17 " Total amount of allowable expenses", and filled in answer No 20 as follows "Sale of Halcrow to CH2MHill – Note I have put NIC deducted by Halcrow £NNNN  as allowable expenses".  However note that he has not yet received a response to this claim.

[HeatherF]

Hello Jane
I can't see how we can claim the NIC contribution as an expense as we did sign to say that we agreed to pay the employers part of the NIC contibutions I would like to know if Mike gets a reply. I know the Tax will work itself out as I shouldn't be paying 40% on the whole amount. Unfortunately the threshold for 20% was reduced last year to £34370
My email address is fostercox@hotmail.com   

[John Ratsey]

@ Heather, a couple of points relating to your post:

1. Your payment of the employer's contribution is an expense associated with you getting the money. You should be able to set it against your tax liability.

2. The threshold for 40% tax is effectively the 20% tax band plus your personal allowance so it's over £40k. Furthermore, the expense of the employer's contribution will reduce the amount liable for the 40% tax.

[Jane Tordoff]

Mike has just logged into his HMRC Account and has been told that his payment request has been processed.  As he is not expecting any other payment it looks like the NIC contribution has been processed and they are going to pay it straight into the bank account.

[HeatherF]

Hello Jane
I have sent a letter of to HMRC seeing if I can put the ENIC payment in as an allowable expense only sent it on Wednesday so don't expect a reply this week. heather

[vicscott]

I submit my tax return online and deducted the employers NIC from the Pay element of the Trust allocation as stated on the P60. I added an explanation that I considered Employers NIC as an expense and entered all the relevant figures in the additional comments section of the online form.
HMRC seem to have accepted this and have now issued a rebate to my bank account.
Many thanks to Robert Every for the advice.

[sreevesjc]

Further to my original post that started this discussion, I successfully completed the on-line tax return, and on 3 June 2013 received £3249.80 from those jolly nice guys at HMRC.

Anyone thinking of doing the same who has not yet done so will need to hurry up because the deadline will be 31 January 2014. They might not allow claims backdating after that date.

[John Ratsey]

The relevant page in Newsletter 3 is http://www.halcrowpensioners.org.uk/pages/news/newsletters/newsletter-no.-3/recovering-tax-on-the-halcrow-trust-payouts.php. (The link in the recently emailed Newsletter 7 is gabled).

[NickyCarp]

I don't do on line submission and rely on HMRC to get it right!  Recently been hit by a notice of underpayment of tax for 2012/2013 for around £3,500 which I am paying off monthly.  Can anyone assist with some wording if I write to HMRC re recovering some of this tax?  (I'm absolutely hopeless with anything regarding tax). 

[Robert Every]

You do not say how the underpayment of £3500 has arisen. If you do not know then ask HMRC to tell you. If it all relate to the year 2012/13 and you do not agree you should complete a tax return for that year and submit it to HMRC to "recover some of this tax". Tax returns can be downloaded from HMRC.

[billmillington]

RECOVERY OF TAX FROM TRUST PAYMENT
Along with the many other beneficiaries of the trust payout, I applied for recovery of tax from the Employers NI payment in my 2012-13 tax return. However, I seem to have hit a brick wall on this and I wonder if any retired or still employed trust beneficiaries might be able to help.  HMRC sent my tax return claim to the NI section of HMRC in Newcastle , believing it to be an NI rather than a tax matter. From there nothing happened for months until I began to enquire, only to find that an investigation was underway between HMRC (NI ) and Halcrow on the matter of whether the employee should have been required to make the employers NI payment in the first place. I was also informed that the investigation had been underway for 9 months and had stalled because no communications had been received from Halcrow.
Consequently, I have been redirected to HMRC ( Tax ) which is where I  began many months ago.
I am aware that many beneficiaries received their refunds. I wonder if anyone knows how many people were successful and if anyone is in the situation I am in. As for the matter of the rights and wrongs of employees paying the employers NI, I can't think where this investigation will lead because if it is concluded that the employee should not have paid, are we going to receive the full NI back and who will refund it ?