Do you pay the correct TAX?

[welkram]

Six weeks ago my wife received a letter from HMRC advising her that she had underpaid her tax for the year 2010/11 by the ammount of ?213.43.

She had retired from a career in banking 10 years ago aged 46 to ensure our three children had someone at home to help them through their O and A levels. All the income she has received for the last 10 years has been a small bank pension, and so the ?213.43 is to her quite a sum and calculates out at approximatley a quarter of her monthly pension.

She contacted HMRC and pointed out that since she had started work at 21 she had never paid any tax to the Revenue services - they had always taken it off her. So how could she have made this mistake, and as her circumstances have never changed how could she now be in their debt?

She pointed out that, as read in Private Eye and other news outlets, Dave Hartnett the Head of HMRC (now quickly retired) had agreed to write off hundreds of millions of pounds of unpaid tax owed by Vodafone and Goldman Sachs over numerious well lubricated lunches. Bearing this in mind she invited the Manager of our local HMRC office to join her for a slap up meal at the local McDonalds where her could sample the delights of a Quarter Pounder with cheese or a mayonnaise splattered Fillet-o-Fish all washed doen with either a large Coke, Fanta or thicksotropic flavoured milkshake.

Well surprisingly enough this all seemed to work because yesterday she received a letter informing her that there had been an error in their calculations and that her tax paid for 2010/11 had been correct and they no longer needed her to pay the extra ?213.43.

And from HMRC, no sorry the mistake was ours, no apology - nothing.

[Dave Wells]

So the big mac worked then ??

[welkram]

Perhaps it was the threat of the Big Mac that worked.

[one eyed jack]

Seems a small price to pay to get a problem sorted.

I wonder what I'd get if I got them a McFlurry chucked in as well.

Personally I think Ive over paid but my accountant is having none of it...I dont think I can tempt him to a McDonalds as its not halal !laugh!

Yeah I got a muslim accountant! So What!?

[alicia_fan_uk]

A learned man once pointed out to me that someone's tax bill isn't what the rules and regs say; rather, it's whatever you can agree it with the revenue to be.

OEJ: halal McDonalds do exist, but the closest I know of them is in France. The trip alone would probably wipe out any tax savings.... (I know only of this from today's Observer - I wouldn't set foot in one, not even for a dump).

alicia_fan_uk