State Pensions, PAYE and unfairness

Not all the taxpayers I look after have high incomes. From time to time I help pensioners and others whose means are quite small.

It may surprise many, but there are some people whose only taxable income is from the UK State Pension. Quite often it is enhanced by the additional State Pension, previously known as the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) and the State Second Pension. This does not mean that those pensioners are living the high life. Their total income might well be no more than £11,000 or £12,000 a year, but that is more than the current Age Allowance of £10,500, frozen by the Chancellor, George Osborne. That means that those pensioners have a tax liability.

Quite a few new pensioners with higher State Pensions are unaware that they have a liability to tax. In fact many are unaware that State Pensions are taxable at all. In the past year or so, I have come across such individuals who have suddenly found themselves with unexpected tax demands and on one occasion a demand for four years’ tax all at once.

I took on the poor chap who had paid HMRC for four years’ tax, and found that actually he owed nothing because HMRC had overlooked his entitlement to the Married Couples Allowance. This actually eliminated his supposed liabilities, but he died before I got the tax back. His widow received the payment.

However, there are others who are receiving tax demands on their State (and only) Pensions out of the blue, and still do have a tax liability. Surely it would be less painful to bring taxable state benefits into PAYE and ensure that no one receives any unexpected shocks? After all, these are by definition people on low incomes, and it cannot be expected that they will have any savings out of which they pay tax. Generally they spend what they receive at that income level, and who can blame them?

Better still, why not exempt from tax any amounts of State Pension in excess of the Age Allowance or Personal Allowance as applicable. After all, these pensioners have done their bit.

What do you think?

Tax disenfranchisement

It was reported this last week that 1.5 million UK pensioners are paying too much tax which is because too much is being deducted from their occupational and private pensions and from any employment earnings they have. Once upon a time of course, most pensioners with taxable income of any sort had to complete tax returns. Since the introduction of Self Assessment in 1996-97 and increased automation and exchange of information as well as significant job cuts in what has become HM Revenue & Customs, far fewer people have to complete tax returns. In itself this is sensible, because why should people have to worry about form filling if it is not necessary, and can be dispensed with? However, if we have a more “automatic” system, it should work and be seen to work. This means that if age allowances are due then they should be allocated, and it should be easier for the public to talk to the Tax Office about their issues.

I believe information should be supplied to every household in the land explaining the system of personal allowances and how direct taxation works at its most basic level, but in reality, the only time most of us get any proper information about the workings of our liabilities to tax is if we actually have to complete tax returns ourselves. For the rest who just have periodical Notices of Coding, HMRC is simply explaining why they are doing what they are doing, and leaving out information which they perceive as irrelevant but which may not be.

Of course, the public may talk to someone at an HMRC call centre if they think they have problems or are being taxed incorrectly, but they need to know they have a problem first. Some no doubt complain about high taxes without knowing that they are being overcharged. This of course takes me back to the point a made a few months ago about “progress” disenfranchising the non-technical population.

© Jon Stow 2009

BBC: 1.5m pensioners 'overpaying tax'