Start the call by saying Hi it’s… calling from Swift Refunds Limited, I have 5 (or however many you have) clients that I need tax code breakdowns for please.
You will then be taken through security, have the National insurance number ready and the client’s HMRC account open, you will need to provide the client’s NI number or UTR number and then you will be asked to confirm the client’s name, address, and postcode and our agent name and address, all of this information is on the clients HMRC account on the “about your client” section
The Advisor will then usually start by giving you any deductions included in the tax code such as benefits or underpayments collected, outstanding debt and state pension etc. I would write these down in your notebook and note that they are the tax code figures, I would not yet ask for P11D figures – wait until the advisor has given you everything in the tax code. If there are underpayments in the tax code ask which year the underpayments are from.
Then the advisor will give you any additions in the tax code, such as expenses, payments to private pensions and marriage allowance.
Once HMRC has given you everything in the tax code if there are any benefits such as car, fuel, medical etc. Ask HMRC for the figures used in their final calculations or the P11D figures.
If this year still does not balance when all of the above information is entered, you will need to ask HMRC if the year is underpaid or overpaid depending on what your calculation is showing. If the year is overpaid ask if any refunds have been issued to the client and enter accordingly.
I have found that if you can not get a year to balance, a good question to ask them is “on the calculation Is there an underpayment brought forward figure and an underpayment at the end of the year figure” as sometimes the underpayments included in the tax code can be different to what is used on HMRC’s calculation.
Another question to ask if the tax year does not balance is, if the client has any other sources of income, you can also ask them if the income we have on record matches their records – they will not give you these figures we will need to read them to HMRC and they will confirm if the figures match.
If the figure in the box of your tax return is in brackets this means overpaid, and if there are no brackets this means the year is underpaid.
For the 2022 tax year if the Self-Assessment for the client has been issued since the beginning of the tax year, there may not have been a calculation done so sometimes the 2022 tax year will not balance and we will just add expenses to the year.