Tax Credits Compliance letter

[Debster]

I received a letter from HMRC tax credits saying they were checking my claim. They asked for 3 yrs books with all expenses reciepts and invoices for mindees my attendance register a breakdown of hrs worked ,3mths bank statements,My certificates and qualifications earned, all my mindees and the charges per hr any advertising. I felt like I had done something wrong the letter came across quite threatening about what happens if fraud is detected. I was really stressed about it. the information had to be sent within 4 weeks of payments stopped it cost me £12.00 to send all the information can I claim the whole amount as expenses or better still should I send them the receipt and ask them to reinburse me because quite frankly I don't see why I should have to meet the cost. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I feel victimised

[Kiddleywinks]

Surely Tax credits aren't allowed access to attendance registers?
HMRC as part of a tax inspection fair enough, but not tax credits surely? And what does your qualifications have to do with them? They have no bearing on your claim as far as I'm aware!

I would be happy to send them a copy of my tax returns, which shows my income against my expenditure, and I may even go so far as to list the total amounts received from each parent with a total amount of hours worked, but I think someone has overstepped their authority here.

As your claim for tax credits is a personal one, I don't think you can claim it as a business expense, but I would be asking them to reimburse me for the postage as a lot of what they've asked for is (none of their business) not relevant to your claim

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I would be calling and asking why they need to see my qualifications? I can see that they want the attendance registers to show when you are working but I would of thought that invoices/expenses would have been sufficient

[MrAnchovy]

Here is the guidance from HMRC as to what they are likely to ask for in a Tax Credits audit. There is no mention of details of expenses or receipts there so I think I would have referred them to that page and said those details are archived.

Attendence registers are probably justified under "details of bookings or appointments you have taken or made" - the Data Protection Act does not prevent you from disclosing this information to HMRC.

[jillplum]

Sorry I can't really say what they need or don't need but just wanted to sypathise about the tone of the letter from them. My son started a higher ed course in September and the day he started I received a letter basically saying I had not informed them of what he was doing and may have been claiming fraudulently! The tone of the letter was really bad even saying if you have an advisor then you should show them this letter. What a cheek. I sent them a snotty letter pointing out that he had started the course that day and I had been unable to get through to inform them as they were engaged. luckily I know my way around forms and big organisations so I wasn't too freaked out but I could imagine people losing sleep over things like this

Hope you get your claim sorted. mine was fine and I didn't owe them anything!

[clairelou]

Did you get this all sorted? I really hope so.
We claim tax credits as I have been on a low income and we get extra for our disabled child, however this year i sent the claim pack back mid July as normal, payments have continued as normal but we still have had no letter from them, i phone every 6 weeks and are told they have all the information and just to wait while they sort the backlog.
The next date to phone is this Friday.
This is really churning me up now but surly if there was a problem they would have stopped the payments wouldnt they?

Is there anything I can do we have been waiting 19 weeks now?

[2045amanda]

We claim tax credits as I have been on a low income and we get extra for our disabled child, however this year i sent the claim pack back mid July as normal, payments have continued as normal but we still have had no letter from them, i phone every 6 weeks and are told they have all the information and just to wait while they sort the backlog.
The next date to phone is this Friday.
This is really churning me up now but surly if there was a problem they would have stopped the payments wouldnt they?

Is there anything I can do we have been waiting 19 weeks now?


I claimed in May and just heard back today and my payments are staying the same, I too have been really worried and like you thought if there was a problem they would have stopped money.

Hope you hear soon x