Father blasts HMRC for 'punishing tax' after getting £7,400 bill

Father blasts HMRC for ‘punishing the working man’ after taxman hands him £7,400 surprise bill because company car pushed him over £50k threshold

• Richard and Rebekha Nicholls from New Waltham, Lincolnshire, were hit with bill
• They were unaware that the company car  was included in tax calculation
• Pair claim child benefit to help them support daughters Enya, Pippa and Ivy  

A father has blasted HMRC for ‘punishing the working man’ after the taxman handed him a £7,400 surprise bill because having a company car pushed him over the £50,000 threshold.

Richard and Rebekha Nicholls, who live together with their children Enya, Pippa and Ivy in New Waltham, Lincolnshire, have been ordered to pay the bill by HMRC because they have been paying child benefit.

The hefty fee, which they were not previously warned about, has built up due to a rule change one year after they started claiming the break in 2012. 

It requires those receiving more than £50,000 a year in salaries and ‘benefits in kind’ to pay back £1 for every £100 they earn over the threshold.

Richard and Rebekha Nicholls, who live together with their children Enya, Pippa and Ivy in New Waltham, Lincolnshire, have been ordered to pay the bill because they exceeded their tax-free allowance while claiming child benefit

Richard, who is the only earner in the family and said he did not know his company car would push him over the threshold, said: ‘Apparently, this charge only applies to the individual, not the household, so it feels like to me, they are punishing the working man.

‘If Rebekha and I were earning £40,000 each, we would have more money between us and not have to pay this charge, but because I am over a certain threshold we do. It does not seem right.’

Rebekha said: ‘We just don’t know how we are going to be able to pay this. As a family we have gone through quite a lot over the past 12 years, and we have other debts to pay as well on top of this.

‘I think that we will have no choice but to try and settle this in court, it is the only way that we can see us getting a payment plan that we can afford.

‘Speaking to our friends, we have found out that we are not the only family who have been given a bill like this, and I just want to warn people to make sure that they do not fall into the same trap that we did.’

HMRC told them ‘it is not a bank’ and that they should either take out a loan or ask a family member to loan them the money

Richard had initially been earning far below £50,000 until he got a new job that vastly increased his salary and came with a company car in 2015.

He thought he was still below the limit but, unbeknown to him, the company car pushed him over.

When the family contacted HMRC to explain their predicament they were told they would have to go to court as the taxman is ‘not a bank’ and won’t let them pay in instalments.

They initially received a letter saying they owed £2,500, before getting one the next day saying this was wrong and they actually owed £7,400.

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