HMRC late filing penalties of self assessment - freddies DCA chasing me

[liddz]

After receiving(and ignoring) several threatening letters from FI I have decided to respond to them by letter. I do not want to phone them and go through what would undoubtedly be listening to their bully tactics over the phone which would result in me telling them to 'foff'!

 

My current debt with them is £1200 from the ridiculous HMRC late filing penalties of self assessment forms etc which has now been filed, although I seem to still be accumulating interest on the debt?!

 

As I was laid off in November my only source of Income at the moment is Job Seekers Allowance which gives me £280 per month, and £200 of this goes to the parents for rent(forced to move back home ). Due to my lack of income Ive decided to offer them a repayment plan of £50 per month and this is the letter I have written:

 

Fredrickson International Limited

PO Box 260

Weybridge

Surrey

KT13 0YH

20/05/2013

 

 

Ref: Account No: ****************

 

 

Dear Fredrickson International,

 

 

I have been receiving letters regarding my HMRC debt of £1200, I fully intend to repay this debt but at the moment I am unemployed. My only source of income Is Job Seekers Allowance at £280 per month, 200 of which goes to my parents for rent. I do not currently have a bank account and my JSA is paid into a post office account, therefore I would like to request a payment card where i could pay £50 per month towards this debt until I find full-time employment where I would then increase my repayments. Also I do not currently have a contact number as my mobile phone contract has ended and I cannot afford to set up a new one, so further correspondence would have to be by e-mail or via letter. I hope this is all satisfactory as it is the best I can do due to my current circumstances.

 

 

Yours Faithfully, ***********

 

 

I'd appreciate some advice on whether or not this letter is correct in what i should be sending etc, thank you!

[wiseajak]

Hi there

I can only offer you my personal experience and opinion.

Hmrc are very stubborn and hard to deal with,

I wouldnt even mention your total income and outgoings unless they ask u for a I&E even so would be very basic.

 

Can you realistically afford and keep up with £50 a month? As that is abit high in my opinion. If you can keep up the payments you would run into more hassle with them.

 

I would be very breif and to the point and just say in writing never phone, that you are in financial hardship and are in reciept of benefits and i would make a substanually lower offer not only will you have some back money should you need it but you also have a lower figure to pay each month.

 

Hope this helps other will advise soon i would imagine.

[wiseajak]

Mentioning your contract or phone is not necs just clearly state you wish all correspondance to be via email or writing

[wiseajak]

Sorry just to correct my earlier post

 

I mean to say if you cant keep uo that figure u would get more hassle.

Just be breif and blunt like they are never let them tell you how much to pay. You can only pay would you can resonably afford.

Stone=no blood

[wiseajak]

Does freddie own the debt or are they collecting on behalf of hmrc?

If on behalf id pay hmrc direct

[liddz]

Thanks for replying, FI are collecting the debt on behalf of HMRC and I would prefer to deal with HMRC instead of a DCA. Would HMRC be willing to set up repayment plans for such a low amount? They're usually quite stubborn from personal experience.

[wiseajak]

Thanks for replying, FI are collecting the debt on behalf of HMRC and I would prefer to deal with HMRC instead of a DCA. Would HMRC be willing to set up repayment plans for such a low amount? They're usually quite stubborn from personal experience.

 

Hi

Yes if they are only acting on behalf of HMRC you can deal with the directly, never pay a DCA.

 

Write to HMRC with relevent details need such account no etc etc an then just a brief overview of your situation. Keep it breif and to the point.

 

State that you are in financial hardship and in reciept of benefit.

Exact amount and outgoings do not need to be mentioned unless the ask u for income and expenditure which only needs to be very breif.

 

Make your offer of payment and stress that this is what you reasonably afford. They cant make you pay any more then what you can spare.

 

Which is why i ask can u realisticly afford to pay £50a month and keep that up as if you cant you would run into more hassle from then.

Be persistent and dont let them pressure you into paying more of any demands they may say.

Your showing willingnes to pay at the end of the day.

They are very hard and stubborn but like iv said be persistent! And state you will only communicate in writing or via email.

[LifeIsAMess]

Personally I wouldn't offer to pay them that amount. I have Fredrickson International collecting a couple of debts from me on behalf of a couple of companies and when I told them my situation they accepted token payments of £1 per month and asked should my circumstances change then to phone call them back and increase the amount to whatever I can afford. They can't take from you what you don't have. Remember after paying your parents rent you still have to buy clothing for yourself etc.

Their letters are not nice but I found them very reasonable when dealing with them over the phone.

[liddz]

Cheers guy I'll write to HMRC and see what reply I get and keep you posted

[Heamoor]

Did you ever get a response to your letter? Thanks

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi liddz and Heamoor,

 

You may already know that there is an appeal going on about the self assessment late filing penalties. I had taken my appeal to the tribunal and my case has been stayed twice due to the other cases.

 

I'm assuming you didn't owe them any tax and the penalties are just for late filing?

 

I think it is absolutely iniquitous that they charge daily interest on a penalty. It's this aspect which is being challenged. HMRC is now appealing against this decision which went against them.

 

http://www.rpc.co.uk/index.php?option=com_easyblog&view=entry&id=722&Itemid=129

 

DD

[Heamoor]

thanks ,no I owe self assessment arrears , trying to deal with them in writing ut had no reply so far

[Desperate Daniella]

Sorry, that bit was for liddz, and I added you in afterwards.

 

If it's been over a month I would send them a chaser. It shows you are doing all you can to deal with the situation. Are they adding interest on a daily basis?

 

I'm arguing the year when they brought in the penalties for late filing. I'm up to date on the tax and everything else has been filed. Honestly, you'd think they would give some credit for everything else being in order, but no......

[Heamoor]

yes daily interest, trying to avoid being put on the spot and bullied on the phone and write to them instead, bit concerned they are not replying though! not quite been a month since they received my letter!

[Desperate Daniella]

If they are charging you daily interest they (should) have an obligation to reply to your letter.

 

I think you may have to call them, but you could try a recorded delivery letter first. They are not all awful. I've found a couple to be quite helpful. You'll never get the same one twice so you could try calling and if they are dreadful you could hang up and call back to get a different one.

[Heamoor]

Yeh tried calling today but , was on hold for my whole lunch break! Offices were closed by the time the kids were in bed and the house was quiet enough to talk

[Desperate Daniella]

They make it so easy to contact them, don't they? Like you I've spent hours on hold for them, and of course now they are on 0845 numbers so we are being charged for the privilege of holding on for them. I told them I was going to charge the phone calls as an expense and they didn't like that at all.

[antone]

The 0845 thing is kinda sad, really, because it was originally set up to benefit those who call. Of course, now that most folks are using mobiles, it doesn't benefit them at all.

 

One thing we used to mention at those useless "tell managers how to make things better" sessions was that the enquiry lines should switch to 0800 and then we should work out a deal with the mobile operators, like we did with new claims lines, to make them free.

 

Nothing ever came of it, of course. DWP management holds its line staff in only slightly better regard than it holds claimants. But we were getting sick of being shouted at about this very topic.