INDEX	January 20, 2024
Cheque mate? I'd rather not...
Any communication from the tax person fills me with despair. It is the one letter I have great difficulty in summoning up the courage to open. Years ago, in the early days of my unemployment (AKA my freelance career) I misread a letter from HMRC believing they were demanding money from me. I was surprised and delighted a few days later when a cheque arrived. They didn't want my money; they wanted to pay me! For the most part it has always gone much like that. When HMRC sent me letters it was because they wanted to change my PAYE code or some such thing. I have not earned a salary and been liable for PAYE for almost 20 years, so if they wanted to change the code it was fine by me. But still I dreaded those letters. Yesterday I received a cheque for £416.60 with a curt note saying this was in response to my claim for a repayment. I have made no such claim. At first I thought I will send the bloody thing back. I don't need it and I don't want it. But then I remembered that a little more than a year ago I got a missive from HMRC suggesting they were going to assess me for fantasy earnings from the future that I knew perfectly well would never happen. I sent in an appeal and heard no more, so I thought I must have been successful in convincing them. Perhaps not. My guess is this is the return of the cash assessed for the imagined future (now past) income that never happened. Money I paid in self assessment last year. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. The money will go into a savings account just in case they change their minds.
INDEX Jonathan Brind		January 20, 2024