Form 12 - just received, never had one before

MB Lacey

Received a Form 12 today in the post, I've never received one before and at first I thought they'd made some mistake, but maybe the mistake is that I've never received one, or completed one.

I've been in the same PAYE job for years and assumed everything was always done by our Payroll department as the only thing I have to do with tax, is paying lots of it and getting my P60 each year.

I'm just wondering - why have I received a Form 12 now?
Thanks

hairyslug

Cant help you but i got 1 for the 1st time too, i can only see a few bits that apply to me, my basic income and employer details, number of children and bank detaila, we have no other income apart from FIS but we didnt claim for that till this year.

Do these go out randomly or are they checking up on me, last time there was anything strange in my income was about 6 years back when i had shares in the company i worked for.

Is it advisable to get someone to look over it or is the info on my p60 enough to complete it

Oh sorry for hijacking thr thread

MB Lacey

no that's fine, guess we're both asking the same question, wondering is there a reason for getting the form 12 out of the blue like this.
Is it random, or are they suddenly after certain info to feed into all my conspiracy theories :rolleyes:

barneystinson

MB Lacey wrote: »

no that's fine, guess we're both asking the same question, wondering is there a reason for getting the form 12 out of the blue like this.
Is it random, or are they suddenly after certain info to feed into all my conspiracy theories :rolleyes:

Yup, random.

hairyslug

So does it matter if i only fill in 3 sections, cant find doctors receipts so may have to pay back on that

cb7

Just got one of those forms as well. Totally out of the blue.

barneystinson

cb7 wrote: »

Just got one of those forms as well. Totally out of the blue.

Yup, that's kinda the point of random!

paul71

There seem to be a lot of random f12s arriving this year. About 10 people have asked me in the last week why they have received one.

barneystinson

paul71 wrote: »

There seem to be a lot of random f12s arriving this year. About 10 people have asked me in the last week why they have received one.

Yes AFAIK they've sent out more than in previous years this year. In a lot of cases people might benefit from the whole exercise and get a refund.

paul71

barneystinson wrote: »

Yes AFAIK they've sent out more than in previous years this year. In a lot of cases people might benefit from the whole exercise and get a refund.

Judging from the profile of the people who asked me about it I think you are correct, it would result in refunds, many of them are people who were unemployed in the latter part of 2011 (although I know 10 is not a representative sample).

scorchm77

I got a form 12 in the post today for 2008. Would there be a specific reason for that?

relax carry on

scorchm77 wrote: »

I got a form 12 in the post today for 2008. Would there be a specific reason for that?

If its for a tax year other than last year then its targeted. It may be that one was issued to you in 2009 for 2008 and was never received by you or returned to Revenue. It can be sent automatically in these cases if a review of another tax year was carried out recently which will show if there are returns outstanding. If you want to check what the reason is for it issuing then I suggest you contact the 1890 paye service.

Whatever the case is; you have received one so you must complete it declaring all sources of income for 2008.

ncit9933

What would happen if you got one and just ignore it?

owiseone

ncit9933 wrote: »

What would happen if you got one and just ignore it?

I received one in the post and there was a letter explaining what you have to do with it. Did you not get on of those with the Form 12?

I've been employed with same company for years and have no other income so it will be straight forward for me. But I suppose there are people out there who have undeclared income and one way revenue has of identifying these peiople is to send out official tax returns randomly. So i suppose if you don't send it back it might be flagged for further investigation.

barneystinson

ncit9933 wrote: »

What would happen if you got one and just ignore it?

You're liable to a penalty of €3k.

nompere

A Form 12 is also a claim for credits.

It's not unknown for Revenue to withdraw tax credits in the absence of a proper claim. That increases PAYE deductions and tends to concentrate the mind!

paul71

barneystinson wrote: »

You're liable to a penalty of €3k.

True, but perhaps a better choice of words is potientially liable. Normally the revenue solicitors will issue a district court summons and if your representing solicitor can show in court that the form 11/12 has been submitted in the interum the revenue may by consent to have the prosecution struck out by the judge.

MBSnr

I got one last year for the 2011 tax year. They want to know of foreign income, pensions, off shore accounts etc which they may not know about and would love to know about in some people's cases. The most ironic thing was I wasn't sure how to fill some of it out relating to tax paid here, so rang the revenue, who provided most of the figures that I entered on it......

Bizarrely I got a €4 tax credit back as well... ;-)

barneystinson

paul71 wrote: »

True, but perhaps a better choice of words is potientially liable. Normally the revenue solicitors will issue a district court summons and if your representing solicitor can show in court that the form 11/12 has been submitted in the interum the revenue may by consent to have the prosecution struck out by the judge.

Oh well that's ok then, you might only incur legal costs! :rolleyes:

paul71

barneystinson wrote: »

Oh well that's ok then, you might only incur legal costs! :rolleyes:

Which is why I mentioned defending solicitor so people would be aware of the costs involved, you know yourself Barney the revenue are actually a very fair organisation to deal with, they are not interested in securing criminal convictions against people, their goal is compliance but compliance can end up being very expensive for people who mess around with deadline dates or fail to make returns.

I always remember partners in my training practice telling me to get the returns in on time even if the client had not provided all details required as an amended return can always be submitted but you only have 1 chance to avoid penalties by making ontime submissions.

Legend100

paul71 wrote: »

Which is why I mentioned defending solicitor so people would be aware of the costs involved, you know yourself Barney the revenue are actually a very fair organisation to deal with, they are not interested in securing criminal convictions against people, their goal is compliance but compliance can end up being very expensive for people who mess around with deadline dates or fail to make returns.

I always remember partners in my training practice telling me to get the returns in on time even if the client had not provided all details required as an amended return can always be submitted but you only have 1 chance to avoid penalties by making ontime submissions.

I may be wrong but wasn't there a change to the legislation a few years back (may have been the code of practice for audits - going on memory so unsure) that making a false submission is liable to a penalty also. If i recall, the reasoning for this was to try and stop people submitting a return "just to get it in on time" regardless of how accurate it was.

I'm in Australia now so haven't been keeping fully up to date with the regulations back home - Might have a look to check on the above