Wednesday, 30 September 2015

HMRC Mistakes Chain of Newsagents for Lover


Debbie Balandis, a single mother, has had a wee bit of a falling out with HMRC, after HMRC threatened to stop her £140 per week child tax credits; because it thought that she was in a relationship.

The "man" that HMRC identified as her partner, based on activity viewed by HMRC of her bank account, was Martin McColl.

All very fine, except that Martin McColl is the trading name of her local branch of RS McColl (a chain of newsagents).

After receiving a letter from HMRC threatening to cut off her credits, Ms Blandis rang HMRC and explained that she collects her benefits from the post office at her local RS McColl hence the name appeared on her bank statements.

However, she was told her weekly payments were being stopped until she can prove Martin McColl isn’t her live-in lover.

An HMRC spokesman is quoted by The Daily Record:
HMRC does not comment on identifiable taxpayers.

When we have reason to believe someone’s circumstances may have changed, we write to them and allow 30 days for a reply. If we don’t hear anything, payments are suspended.

Payments will be reinstated as soon as people have provided us with information requested and it has been reviewed.
I dare say, now that the media are involved, the issue will be resolved.

However, I would have thought that if HMRC checked the account Martin McColl that would prove one way or another whether this was a man or a trading account.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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4 comments:

  1. Issues are always there if you dont have complete knowledge about tax and the proper process to calculate tax.

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  2. There's one down my road who's with a WH Smith every day.

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  3. Isn't it good HMRC won't back down as it will make them look stupid. Just swallow your pride and give her her tax credits back.

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  4. The answer to the question must surely be 'legally', to access a bank account requires that someone in authority (hah!) has signed off on an intrusive check or examination of a taxpayers bank account.

    This should only occur after exhausting all other opportunities to confirm the credibility of her claim e.g. A simple check by HMRC against the McColl data links would have established this, or not as the case may be as the interchange of data between HMRC systems is crap!

    Pity the idiots don't evidence such tenacity against the real Law Breakers.

    ReplyDelete