Pensioner, 89, owes £4,900 in tax however HMRC will not let her pay | UK | News | EUROtoday

Pensioner Jan Cannons has tried to pay her HMRC tax invoice however as a result of she doesn’t have a driving licence or a passport she has been unable to take action.

Her frustrations have turned to panic as she is anxious she can be left with huge penalties from the taxman as a result of incomplete self-assessment.

HMRC beforehand operated a system known as Gov.uk Verify which allowed individuals to substantiate their identification by way of the Post Office or Experian, by which a driving licence or credit score information had been wanted.

This has since been out of date with Gov.uk now not accessible to confirm an individual’s account to be able to register to their HMRC digital providers with a Government Gateway account now wanted.

However in Cannon’s case, she is unable to arrange her account as the federal government tax division received’t let her accomplish that with no legitimate ID.

Cannons lately offered her house in Chilmark, Wiltshire for £600,000 following the demise of her husband.

The pensioner, who additionally suffers from macular degeneration which is an eye fixed illness, then opened a financial savings account to be able to deposit monies from the house sale.

However, HMRC does state that any one that has greater than £10,000 in saving or funding curiosity should full a self-assesment.

To do that evaluation, a Government Gateway account is required which requires candidates to have two objects from a listing of acceptable ID.

This consists of both a ID passport, pay slip, tax credit score or a driving licence – which Cannons has none of.

Cannon’s son, Simon has been left annoyed by this ID rule which suggests no Government Gateway account has been arrange and estimated this might imply his mom could face a whopping £4800 tax invoice.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Cannons mentioned: “HMRC will be aware of how much interest my mother has received on the proceeds of her house sale and therefore will send her a bill for several thousands of pounds.”

He added: “I’m really concerned that if I don’t do a tax return for my mother, then HMRC will send her a large tax bill and possibly a fine for not completing a tax return.”

“Once her macular degeneration had reached a certain point, we convinced her that she shouldn’t be driving anywhere and so she didn’t renew her licence.”

HMRC encourages all returns to be filed on-line however appear much less conscious that this isn’t at all times possible for some.

Mr Cannons added: “Renewing a passport isn’t that expensive but it is still an expense. We didn’t believe my mother would travel abroad anymore and so during the pandemic, we let it lapse.

“I don’t know what I will do when we get to April.”

“We’re contacting Ms Cannons to help her file her tax return. We’re continually working to help more people access our online services,” mentioned a A HMRC spokesman.