Got a fine from HMRC? We're here to help

When you're a RIFT client, we do everything we can to make things easy for you. That means keeping your paperwork spotless and making sure you hit all your deadlines. It also means fighting your corner with HMRC when things go wrong.

Of course it's always best to stay in the taxman's good books and that's why we take so much care with our clients. Sometimes, though, people come to us because they’ve already got a tax problem that they don’t know how to solve. This might be because of missed tax return deadlines, underpaid tax, fines or demands for payment. Don’t worry, though, signing up with RIFT is exactly the right thing to do because even if you’ve got in trouble with HMRC there's a lot we can do to help. Here's an example.

One of our customers, came to us in October with a problem. He’d missed the deadline for his Self Assessment tax return and was facing a hefty penalty from HMRC. By the time he got in touch to see if we could help, he was already looking at a fine of £1,307! Of course, HMRC penalties have a nasty habit of ramping up over time. To make things even more stressful if he didn't get it sorted by the 31st of January, he had even bigger problems. Once that next deadline expired, his fine was going to rise to £1,600 plus interest!

As soon as we he got in touch with us, our tax return specialists went into action. We quickly assembled all the information we needed and got to work fixing the problem. By the 23rd of December, we'd sorted out his overdue tax return and submitted it to HMRC – just in time for him to be able to enjoy Christmas without all that worry hanging over his head. We didn't stop there, though. By looking carefully at all of his expenses, we saw that he had a serious tax refund claim to make that was bigger than the fine. We put the claim together and filed it for him.

Not only did we succeed in covering the outstanding amount the taxman was demanding, but we also arranged a hefty refund. This means that instead of having to pay HMRC a huge fine and being almost £2,000 down, he was an impressive £1,499.28 better off and all his debt to HMRC was cleared!  By the 4th of January, his cheque was on its way – and you can’t ask for a better start to the New Year than that!

We’re glad to say he was delighted and told us he’s been recommending RIFT to all of his colleagues – which will earn him even more through our Refer a Friend reward scheme. Of course, now he’s a RIFT customer he’ll never have to worry about any of this again – and next time round he’ll get to keep the entire refund for himself.

He said:

“The help and service from you and your team is outstanding and the quickness of the process is amazing. Thank you very much.”

The moral of this story is that you should never assume it's too late to ask for help when the taxman sticks his hand out. Talk to RIFT if you've got fines from HMRC. At the very least there's a good chance we could limit the damage - and maybe do a lot more besides. With £80 million in unclaimed tax refunds sitting with HMRC each year, it’s well worth a few minutes of your time to use our refund calculator or give us a quick call and see if there’s anything waiting there that rightfully belongs to you.

Tax Calculator 

If you're owed a tax refund we'll get it back in your pocket. It costs nothing to find out where you stand, and you won't pay a penny until your refund's received.

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