HMRC has again issued unwitting pensioners with shock tax bills.
This time, around 150,000 pensioners are to receive tax bills for an average of £800 because HMRC has discovered an error which saw them pay to little tax.
This latest incident is yet another tale of confusion and errors emanating from HMRC HQ, which was recently subject to a damning critique by a group of MPs.
The source of this error is again connected to tax codes, HMRC have again given pensioners the wrong tax codes and so they are being forced to repay almost £1,000.
The affected pensioners will be notified about their surprise bills by post in the summer, and HMRC admits that they will no doubt find the news “upsetting”. In total it is thought that the affected pensioners combined bill amasses to around £117 million, and practically all of them will have no idea they still owe.
This situation has followed many other instances of internal error leading to taxpayer woe. The pensioners who are affected by this latest blunder will be allowed to make their repayments in instalments over a period of three years.
HMRC has apologised for this situation but will not go as far as writing off the amount.