Tier 4 and self- employment problem

[LH2014]

Hello everyone,
My friend needs an advice. She came to UK in 2005 on a student visa(work permission was 20h) and in a few months started to work for a company(as a cleaner) on a part time basis. It is been for a couple of years. Recently she has received a letter from HMRC stating that she was self- employed from 2005 until now and failed to submit tax return with a huge amount to pay. The thing is she never was a self- employed, she was paid by the company on her account monthly, sometimes with delays. No payslips or P60 was provided to her and she didn't ask for as she didn't know the system and her english was very poor. She has been a full time student since 2005 until now and didn't work at all except those couple years for a company. What she can do now? First of all she doesn't have the money to pay fine and etc and also she is afraid that it will affect her application on ILR (10 year route). I would appreciate any advice.

[Frontier Mole]

This is not a taxation forum so dont expect too much of a response to the taxation issues.

As for ILR - if your freind was to be prosecuted for tax offences then there would be a problem. Given the situation she should seek tax advise to quantify if there is actually any tax due. There is every possibility that the figure they quote is hugely excessively high as it is their way of getting you to do something about it.

[LH2014]

This is not a taxation forum so dont expect too much of a response to the taxation issues.

As for ILR - if your freind was to be prosecuted for tax offences then there would be a problem. Given the situation she should seek tax advise to quantify if there is actually any tax due. There is every possibility that the figure they quote is hugely excessively high as it is their way of getting you to do something about it.

Thanks for response

[hassan5805]

Hi
Tell your firend to send tax retruns to all the years but if she does that she ll get loads of penalties.

But she can appeal that no tax retrun should have been issue to her because she wasnt doing any self assessment.,

Just send a tax return Nill.

Hmrc now days they got updated record and they can go back more than 3 years,

Hmrc retrun will not effect on ILR as longer as she not got bank corrupt.

Best Regards

[Frontier Mole]

DO NOT PUT IN NIL TAX RETURNS.
If you go down that route you may well be making a false declaration. The issue seems to be the employer treated you as self employed, they have come to the attention of HMRC and that has led to the enquiry.
The earnings for the years she was a cleaner have to be declared which may well be below the tax threshold so would not be subject to taxation. Hence get professional advice.

[LH2014]

DO NOT PUT IN NIL TAX RETURNS.
If you go down that route you may well be making a false declaration. The issue seems to be the employer treated you as self employed, they have come to the attention of HMRC and that has led to the enquiry.
The earnings for the years she was a cleaner have to be declared which may well be below the tax threshold so would not be subject to taxation. Hence get professional advice.

That exactly what happened, if she fills in tax returns even with zero it means she accepts that she was self employed and thereby violate s320 that TR4 student cannot be self employed?