Applying for British Citizenship and taxes

[michael000]

Hi All,

I want to apply for my british citizenship. I am in the process of filling out the application form and my work status falls under self employed.

My concern is that because of fininacial difficulties I am 2yrs behind on my tax self asssesmnet.I know when I am in the position to pay my taxes I willl be fined a late fee based on interest but my concern is will this affect my citizenship application.

On the application form it requires the most recent HM Revenue and Customs self assessment statement of account.

Your opinion and advise would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Michael

[John]

Michael, I think you have a problem, and don't think you should apply for Naturalisation until after your tax affairs are up-to-date.

But what are you saying? That you haven't filed all the Self Assessment returns that you should have filed? Or those returns have been filed, but payments shown as due have not been paid up to date?

[michael000]

Hi John,

I haven't filed all the Self Assessment returns that you should have been filed.

[John]

That being the case, OK, HMRC don't (yet) know how much tax you owe, but I don't think you should be applying for Naturalisation until outstanding tax returns are filed, and tax payments brought up to date.

[michael000]

Thanks for your opinion John.

[web2005]

Hi All,

I want to apply for my british citizenship. I am in the process of filling out the application form and my work status falls under self employed.

My concern is that because of fininacial difficulties I am 2yrs behind on my tax self asssesmnet.I know when I am in the position to pay my taxes I willl be fined a late fee based on interest but my concern is will this affect my citizenship application.

On the application form it requires the most recent HM Revenue and Customs self assessment statement of account.

Your opinion and advise would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Michael

Hi, Did you experience any problems with ILR application due to this non paid taxes? Was this issue raised by ILR case worker? What did you supply for P60/payslips? I am also in the similar situation and worried if my ILR application will be rejected due to this issue. Please share your ILR experience.

Kind regards

[Casa]

If anyone is self-employed they won't have a P60 or payslips. When my (self-employed) husband applied for ILR at Croydon PEO, he had his up-to-date self-assessment tax return with him, but it wasn't checked. They did however, take copies of his business bank statements and the NI number is on the application form...so they may make further checks.
When you sign the form you give them permission to obtain information from any other Government/official body.
However, for a BC application, proof that tax liabilities have been met are one of the conditions for granting nationality.

[michael000]

Since I am self employed there was no P60 or payslips.When I applied for my ILR application I was up to date with my taxes.Funny thing is that then I just provded them with company invoice payslips and a few bank statements and nothing in relation to HM Revenue self assesmentt forms etc...

My major problem is that my last self assesment form was for the 2007 financial year and nothing up to now.So I guess I am looking at trying my luck and applying for citizenship and hope they do not investigate my tax history or run the risk of it being rejected because my taxes are not up to dat and loosing the non refundable ablication fee.

Or wait until I have the money to bring my taxes up to date and apply for it then but that might not be till next year and probably by then the new points system might be in place which could make my application even more difficult!

[Casa]

I'm 100% with John's advice. Wait until you have your Tax paid up-to-date, or you risk losing your £720 application fee. You'll have to submit your most recent self-assessment tax return with your application, and I believe it will be considered invalid without this. A National Checking Service would reject the application, which is good indication of your chances of being granted BC.

[michael000]

Think you are right..thanks.