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Key points
- In 2022-23 TaxAid and Tax Help for Older People supported a total of 13,965 people with their tax.
- Self assessment, pensions and PAYE make up almost 90% of all enquiries received by Tax Help for Older People.
- The volunteers across both charities provide personal contact with individual clients.
- The generosity of donors underpins the hard work of the charities’ staff and volunteers.
- Donations are always welcome.
Can you give us the gift of an hour this Christmas? Your support of the tax charities, TaxAid and Tax Help for Older People, allows us to provide our tax helpline services resolving tax issues, overturning tax debt and refunding overpaid tax – stopping vulnerable people from falling into further financial hardship. You can help us to continue our services, and to grow and improve the ways we support, advocate and educate vulnerable people through the complex tax system.
The tax charities aim to provide tax help to all who need it. We do this through our helpline services, but also through education on tax, and by advocating for our beneficiaries to HMRC. In 2022-23 we saw a large increase in issues surrounding tax refund agents to our helplines. Although some refund agents are legitimate and are upfront about their fees, others charge high fees and make inflated and fraudulent claims. In some cases, clients who thought they were filling in an online questionnaire to check if they were due a refund, unwittingly signed up to hand over part of their repayment to a refund company. We were able to feed this back to HMRC and were pleased to see that HMRC ran a consultation about this very issue.
Here are some examples of how we can make a real difference.
Emma’s story
Emma was widowed young and subsequently had to sell her home and move into a one-bedroom flat with her son. She registered as self-employed taking on jobs such as gardening, cleaning and childcare but, due to learning difficulties and digital illiteracy, she did not understand the letters telling her to complete her tax return.
On contacting HMRC they pointed her towards online resources, which made her feel helpless. The letters continued to arrive, now with penalties, which Emma paid as they came through, thinking this would solve the problem. She ended up paying £4,700 in penalties when her annual income was only £6,000.
We worked with Emma to complete her tax returns and appeal the penalties. She received a full refund, finding herself in a better financial position, with a better understanding of how to manage her taxes going forward.
Ben’s story
Your support will help people like Ben, who following a diagnosis with terminal cancer, cashed in his pension and cleared his debts to help his wife. Ben had filled in his tax return incorrectly and ended up with a tax debt of £54,000. Ben told us he was extremely anxious about the bailiffs coming to his home. Jane, one of our volunteers, helped Ben to resubmit his tax return correctly. The tax demand was cancelled, and he received a tax refund of £2,500.
Ben said in an email: ‘Thank you so very much, for your help and the incredible news. Your call has lifted an incredible weight from our shoulders. The stress was affecting my wife’s health as well as my own. I will never tire of saying thank you to you and all within your group of marvellous people.’
Chartered tax adviser Jane, the volunteer for Tax Help for Older People, said ‘There is a very large number of people who are conscientiously doing their best to meet their tax obligations but need some help. Tax Help provides an essential service for this group of people.’
What your donation can do
Your donation can help us to look at ways we can grow our services and reach more people who need our help. In the last year we have looked at how we can increase calls to our helplines from areas of poverty in the UK. We created a targeted outreach programme to increase calls from the Hackney area of London, using our connections in the voluntary sector to reach more people in need. This programme was successful, and we saw a 33% increase in beneficiaries in Hackney during this period, when compared to previous years.
Can you donate your last hour?
As tax professionals, you know the difference that your advice can make. If you can donate your last hour of pay before Christmas, you can support our charities in the work that we do. Ensuring our helpline service supports vulnerable people through the ever-changing tax landscape. Helping people like Emma and Ben through the stress and anxiety that come with tax problems, and allowing our service to grow to help even more like them. Please, if you can, donate your last hour of pay this year for Christmas.
Readers can donate to the tax charities through our joint fundraising campaign, Bridge the Gap, using this link: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/24753. The funds raised will be split equally between the two charities.
Thank you for your generosity.
