When dealing with the Inland Revenue it is import to keep records. Obviously, if you write to them, keep a copy of your letter. There are some things that you receive every year as a matter of routine which should be kept. They will allow you to check your tax easily if you have them to hand.
Our suggestions are :-
The above is a list of the more common important documents. If in doubt about something, keep it!
Pensioners, P60's and Pension Advices
If you step back for a moment and look at the things you need to have to sort out your tax it is obvious that 99% of it is paperwork. The rest is form filling, hard enough in its own way. But to get the job done you need documents. Straight away a certain type of pensioner has a problem.
Increasingly Occupational Pension Providers and Administrators are not sending out documents to pensioners where there has been no change or nothing to report. For example, it is likely that a pensioner will only get one advice at the start of the year or when a pension increase is awarded. If there is no change, no payment advice. Even P60's are not imune. If no tax has been deducted in the tax year, a P60 may not be sent. Surprisingly this is legal. Finally if the pensioner does not have an active bank account statements may only be sent once a quarter.
The only way of dealing with this situation is to make sure you keep your bank statements. This impacts greatly on one type of pensioner. Someone with a small untaxed pension receiving interest on savings that is taxed at source. For example someone aged between 65 and 75 with a state pension of £5311 and an Occupational Pension of £4000 a year plus savings interest of £1000 a year before tax is deducted. The interest would be taxed at 20%, £200 but there is still £629 of unused personal allowance so a refund of tax paid on interest is due. The only evidence of this is from the bank statement. If you ask someone to check your tax they will need to see these statements. Keep them in a folder so you know where they are.