HMRC pursues expat for over seven years for money he never owed them in the first place

An expat who retired in New Zealand found he could not escape a series of errors by HM Revenue & Customs, which unfairly harassed him into filing tax returns for more than seven years.

Michael Johnson, 77, left the UK for New Zealand in 2007 after a career in the Navy and technology sector.

Johnson received no response from HMRC for 10 years, until he received an unexpected letter in February 2017.

The letter was a £100 fine for failing to submit his tax return in both 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Johnson was not entitled to pay any tax in the UK, so he sent HMRC a copy of his New Zealand passport as well as photocopies of letters from the taxman.

HMRC responded to apologise, confirmed that he did not need to pay any tax, cancelled the £100 fine and paid £25 in compensation to apologise for the error and for the time Johnson spent trying to fix the problem.

The taxman said the error was due to Johnson being wrongly recorded as self-employed and said it had resolved the issue.

Johnson thought that was the end of the matter, but a year later he received another letter from HMRC demanding he file a tax return, plus another £100 fine.

Once again, Johnson sent a strongly worded letter to HMRC, telling the taxman that he was “a New Zealand citizen and intended to die here” and therefore owed no tax.

HMRC apologised again, saying it had made the same mistake as in 2017. The tax body cancelled the fine and paid him £35 in compensation.

Mr Johnson said: “I am now 77 and I am very distressed by all this. The letters, the lost time, the copies and the threats from HMRC. Why are they after me?”

Another year passed and once again a letter from HMRC landed on Johnson’s doormat.

This time the letter was not a fine, but a notice that the tax authority had changed its tax code.

Johnson objected, and the taxman apologised again, saying the error was because Johnson’s private pension provider had changed his details with HMRC.

In response, HMRC’s computer system assumed the change meant Johnson would receive a larger pension, which he did not.

Once again, HMRC apologised and paid a further £25 in compensation.

A few years passed, but in 2021 Johnson received another £100 fine from HMRC for allegedly failing to file a tax return.

An exasperated Johnson sent another letter to HMRC, apologising, paying £35 and saying: “We have made it clear that you are exempt from UK tax from 6 April 2010.”

But Johnson received another letter from HMRC in April 2024, saying he was owed £100 for failing to file a tax return on time.

An exasperated Johnson finally had enough and contacted This is Money to try and finally resolve the issue.

HMRC then apologised again, offered Johnson yet more compensation and promised the issue would not arise again.

An HMRC spokesman said: “We have apologised to Mr Johnson and corrected his record to ensure this does not happen again.”

However, Johnson is not sure the problem has finally been resolved.

He said: “On a personal level, I have little confidence that this will not happen again. I have no choice but to believe what they say.”

“I think HMRC people are intent on fixing it because mistakes waste their time, money and effort, but the computer system took action without human intervention and then blamed it without any obvious oversight.”

Have you ever found yourself in a nightmare with the tax collector? editor@thisismoney.co.uk