UK Tax coding for frozen pensioners in Australia

[Chris Evans]

Dear Frozen Pensioners,  

 More news about UK income tax codes for UK state pensioners living in Australia: 

I have finally heard from the DWP, who admit that they passed the incorrect figure for my UK State Pension to the UK income tax office- it fact they stated it was almost exactly twice what it actually is, and this has resulted in my paying far too much tax in UK.  

    When I spoke to DWP on the phone recently, they offered to put the correct figure in writing, and send it to me in Australia, so that I could submit it to the tax office and get my coding corrected. When I politely suggested that it would be far easier all round if they simply passed the information direct to the taxman, they seemed to find that an outrageous suggestion, and refused, saying that the rules do not allow them to contact HMRC (the Income Tax office) on behalf of taxpayers, who are expected to make their own applications for a review of their tax coding. 

   I find this attitude less than helpful, (to put it mildly), and since DWP have obviously contacted the tax office previously to give them the wrong figures, it seems ridiculous to claim that they are not permitted to contact them a second time to correct their own error. 

    I pointed this out in an email to the Minister for Pensions, and received the following reply:-

It is true that when a customer is living in a country where the State Pension is not uprated the calculation of their annual pension by HMRC can be incorrect. To counter that situation, the customer needs to contact the DWP to request a statement reflecting that they are not receiving the annual increases in State Pension. The customer then needs to provide HMRC with the DWP annual statement for it to calculate their correct tax code.

    Customers who live in Australia will not receive an annual statement automatically and so need to request this from the DWP each year. A statement request should be made each February to allow time for it to be processed for customers in Australia to receive it by post- it cannot be sent out by email. 

   

 So although the DWP pay me my pension to an Australian bank, and address mail to me here in Australia, after more than 20 years they still claim to be unaware that I live here. Also, they evidently do not seem to know how much they are paying me, because they assume my pension is uprated annually. which does not say much for their accounting system ? 

     The promised written statement from DWP has just arrived, and I have posted it straight back to HMRC, with a request that they correct my tax code, and in the meantime, I continue to see far too much UK Income Tax deducted monthly from my (occupational) pension ! Will I ever get it back I wonder ?

    Comments welcomed...Chris Evans

[terraine]

Never ending stuff ups by DWP.
If they paid us  the full pension like uk  residents and of those living in non commonwealth countries.
Which is reducilous legislation we would gladly pay income tax
But don't believe the frozen pension regime will change
Regards
Terry Stretton

[Chris Hill]

Presumably you complete an annual self assessment for HMRC stating your frozen state pension which will generate a refund if one is due but I agree incorrect tax codings are common. In my case I am being thumped with a 45% tax rate due to underpayment by my Defined Benefit occupational pension

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[Chris Evans]

Yes I do indeed submit an annual tax return to UK, and explain in simple language that my UK state pension is frozen for life at the figure I supply to them. However, they either do not believe me, or else nobody ever reads what is written in the "any other information" box ! Chris Evans

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[Marianne]

This is just anaother reason we opted to not pay tax in the Uk.  We pay tax in Australia but we both agreed, if they are stealing our uprating, they are not entitled to anything more from us.

Marianne


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