HMRC Tax Bills 2026: Shocking 4 Reasons Why 1.2 Million People Face Tax Demands. HMRC has been found to have issued 1.2 million PA302 simple assessment tax calculations for 2024/25 tax year.
HMRC has issued 1.2 MILLION tax demands – but doesn’t know how many are challenged or voided because of inaccuracies. HMRC has issued 1.2 million basic assessment tax calculations (PA302s) in the 2024/25 tax year.
But City AM adds that the tax office “refused to say how many calculations were cut, cancelled or withdrawn, saying retrieving the data would be more expensive than it is worth as it “does not have information readily available”.
What is a Simple Assessment Tax Bill?
If you owe tax for a previous year, you can obtain a Simple Assessment. HMRC assesses the amount of tax you have paid at the end of each tax year using information from your employers, pension providers and banks and building societies.
If you’ve underpaid tax and HMRC can’t collect it through your tax code, they’ll send you a Simple Assessment tax bill (also called a PA302).
You’ll get a letter in the post or in your Personal Tax Account. It shows you how much tax you owe and how it was worked out and how to pay.
Four Reasons Why HMRC May Send You a Simple Assessment
HMRC says you could get a Simple Assessment for four reasons. These are:
- owe Income Tax that cannot be collected through your tax code
- owe £3,000 or more in tax
- need to pay tax on your State Pension
- have untaxed income (such as savings interest or dividends)
Concerns Over HMRC’s Tax Assessment Accuracy
“It is shocking that HMRC has so little management information about the million-plus tax demands it is sending out every year,” said Sir Steve Webb, the former pensions minister and a partner at pension consultants LCP.
If HMRC do not record how often people dispute these assessments and how often they are subsequently withdrawn or amended, they can have no understanding of the extent of inaccuracy or how this is evolving over time.
Sir Steve, former Liberal Democrats and Conservative Party coalition government pensions minister, said: “HMRC should begin to record challenges to simple assessments, otherwise they are ‘flying blind’ in terms of implementing this part of the tax system.”