Self assessment and uber fines - any advice?

[Some Gump]

Hi forum,

Long story short:

I am PAYE. Earn over 50k, but always avoided tax returns due to hassle (e.g. paid 13p / mile but ignored ability to claim difference to 45p because I hate forms).

We have a kid. Wife stops working. She claims child benefit because if we don't, she loses her years towards pension.
Realise this year after reading newspaper that we should have done returns because it's a manual process for me to repay the CB (I thought it was automatic).
Register for self assessment.

No option to fill in anything online.
Get letter saying I need to do 2022-2023 by 31 Jan 2024.
Come back from Le Mans to find that I've been fined 100 quid x 3 for late payment of tax returns 2020-2023.

Log in, do tax return 2022-2023. Still no option to do other years.
Call helpline. Helpline closed until September.
Do online chat, takes 3 days to get through the queue when not in a meeting (can be 1-3 hrs to get up the queue, if you don't respond in 2 mins, they close and you start again).
Now find option to fill in prior years (it's a 6 click process that really, really isn't intuitive)

Fill out tax returns. Discover that I've been:
Fined for late payment (1 mth 3mth 6mth 1 year)
Charged interest at some crazy rates. Seems to be that there's like an escalator where every month that is unpaid gets an extra 0.5% (up to 7 % when the base rate was next to nowt). Penalties, interest adds up to some thousands...

I've paid it all to avoid more penalties, but....

I totally get fines / punitive interest if I'd been ignoring letters, but this is pure lack of knowledge on my part. I've always avoided self assessment to not do forms (paid 9p a mile fuel and I knew that you could claim the difference to 45p back, but just didn't want to do the forms). Sadly, new job so don't have records of that... Also too late for her to transfer 10% of allowance to me (never even knew that was a thing!) So no upside to doing SA returns.

Can I appeal? There's form 371 and I'll give it a go, but does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance, including to those who will rinse me for being ignorant to the process =)

[PorkInsider]

I don't think being ignorant of the threshold for claiming child benefit will help with an appeal, to be honest.

I know several people who've fallen foul of that rule.

With regard to the transfer of tax allowance, as I understand it if you're over the threshold for higher rate tax you can't transfer any of your allowance and from what you said it sounds like you're probably over that?

[jonwm]

I had this about 5 years ago, it was my hugely taxed company car taking me over the threshold, I tried to explain but to them tax is your own doing, I had 4 years to catch up on and ended up paying nearly £4k back including fines.

I've down SA since and make sure I clain for anything I'm allowed now where like you previously I was not to bothered.

[AndyAudi]

Some Gump said:

Hi forum,

Long story short:

Wife stops working. She claims child benefit because if we don't, she loses her years towards pension.

Realise this year after reading newspaper that we should have done returns because it's a manual process for me to repay the CB

Just putting link here for info, she didn’t need to claim the cash to preserve her pension
https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge

If you hate form filling opt to stop her receiving it, whoever claimed it created this, there was likely a warning (unless they didn’t know you earned more than £50k..)

However if you’re committed to tax returns now think about all the things you can claw back on,
Gift Aid
Professional subscriptions
Mileage/working from home allowances

[Aunty Pasty]

I had this a few years ago. I suspect the fine was the 3 x £100 + all the extra you should have paid over the last 3 years. I forgot to deal with it for two years. They finally caught up with me. I paid about £200 in fines and had to pay back all the CB that my wife received which was over £2k IIRC.

The self assessment form isn't too difficult so long as you retain your pay slips. One benefit of self assessment is that it's an easy way to claim back extra tax relief on pension payments.

I think this year they made it a bit more difficult to claim for working from home allowances now. They also seem to have moved some sections around. I can't seem to find the section where you can claim for extra work expenses...

[Some Gump]

Thanks everyone, it's appreciated.

Looks like they've accepted appeal on the fines, but not the interest. Pity it's so hard to fathom, even the bits where you claim for expenses is totally unclear.. Oh well it's done now!

[The Leaper]

Some Gump said:

Thanks everyone, it's appreciated.

Looks like they've accepted appeal on the fines, but not the interest. Pity it's so hard to fathom, even the bits where you claim for expenses is totally unclear.. Oh well it's done now!

Why is it "totally unclear"? SA form, page E1, sections 17-20. Maybe it's "unclear" because you have not kept good records of these expenses, hardly HMRC's problem.

R.