Voluntary Class 2 NI 2018 2019

[mearnsfool]

There seems to be an issue with the Self Assesment System for 2018 2019

Added the Self Employed pages to the good ladies tax return.

Filled in all the pages including saying it was only to pay voluntary NI with trading income less than £1,000.

Assed the income and expenses for the trading.

Finaly got to the Class 2 NI page and it advises no Class 2 NI to pay, agreed!

It then says do you want to pay voluntary Class 2 NI to protect your state pension.

Click yes!

Error message saying there is no NI to pay!

Phone Sell Assesment help line and it says they are too busy and auto hangs up.

Happy days

[mearnsfool]

It's getting worse the, trading income of £150 declared for some trading to allow the application to pay Voluntary Class 2 NI is now being taxed and the calculation sheet is advising that "The Class 2 NICs amount is not available"

Lets hope it is just an error from 2017 that is rearing it's head again.

[pochisoldi]

Need waive the £1000 self employed income allowance. Uncheck the relevant tick box.
If you don't do that, you aren't self employed, ergo no class 2...

[mearnsfool]

I don't think I ticked a specific box other than ticking the box at the start of the return to add the self employed page to the return. I will look for such a box. Someone on another forum has got the same issue.

I will report back later.

[mearnsfool]

Just checked the other forum. This is the reply.

I managed to speak with an advisor at HMRC. They said to submit the return as is (ie with no calculated NICs), then give them a call after 3-4 days and they will enter an amount manually.

I will do that.

[chas49]

Box 36 on the self employment pages (short version) for 17-18 said

if your total profits for 2017- 18 are less than £6025, and you choose to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily, put 'X' in the box

Presumably there's an equivalent for 2018-19.....

[mearnsfool]

Yes this is what you get on the 2018 2019 tax year SA return.

• As Class 2 NIC amount is not available or is zero , select 'No' to 'Select Yes if you want to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily'
• Do you want to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily? ERROR: Please check and amend the entry below.
• Yes
• No

[MyNameIsUrl]

Yes this is what you get on the 2018 2019 tax year SA return.

• As Class 2 NIC amount is not available or is zero , select 'No' to 'Select Yes if you want to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily'
• Do you want to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily? ERROR: Please check and amend the entry below.
• Yes
• No

I see the same problem. Seems to me one can only pay voluntarily if there is a figure showing against Class 2 NIC amount - if it's zero or not available, one can't elect to pay it.
The online help offered includes:

If the Class 2 amount shows 'Not Available, check help' this may be because:
you’re not registered to pay Class 2 NICs go to Register for HMRC taxes
you’re trying to complete your return between 2am-5am when the facility is unavailable
you’re completing your return outside of these hours click the ‘Recalculate’ button to show the amount due

If the Class 2 amount shows ‘£0.00’ this may because of one of the following reasons:
you’re not registered to pay Class 2 NICs go to Register for HMRC taxes
you may have paid the maximum NICs due
you may have received certain benefits meaning no Class 2 NICs are due
you may be paying your Class 2 in a different way, e.g. you were abroad

There seems to be no way to check online if one is still registered as self-employed - I suppose it's possible to become de-registered in error. You can only call HMRC. Similarly the other potential issues ('certain benefits') are so vague it's rather difficult to check whether they apply or not. Sorry this isn't much help other than to confirm yours isn't an isolated problem.

[mearnsfool]

No not competed the return between 2am and 5 am.

Register with HMRC as self employed and using the same self employed name for the self employment page.

No NIC paid in 2018 2019.

Receiveing no other state benifits.

Otherwise no issues.

[mearnsfool]

Ok, I have been meaning to get in touch with the PAYE helpline to pay the voluntary Class 2 NI contributions but it is always too busy and auto disconnects.

At 8:00am on Monday 3rd June, I got through to the HMRC PAYE helpline and advised that there was an issue getting Class 2 voluntary payments to work on the self-assessment return.

The help desk person said as previously advised accept that you do not want voluntary NI payments and submit the return.

They gave me a phone number for the DWP who would sort it out. I thought I was being spun a tail.

I contacted the DWP and the lady there was great and she advised that as it was for the 2018 2019 tax year, DWP could not take the voluntary NI payments, they only take them for the years before that.

She then said she could transfer me to the correct person in HMRC but could not give out the phone number of that specific department.

We were transferred to the correct department in HMRC. The lady there was also great.

She said first she would try to click the voluntary NI box from her system as she could see the 2018 2019 live tax return we had submitted. It worked for her.

She then said how do you want to pay and that the easiest way was via electronic banking?

She then gave me the sort code and account number for HMRC which was the usual one for punters PAYE payments and advised to pay the £150 or so with the UTR and a K in the reference box.

Did the Bank transfer this morning and will chase up the NI people to transfer the funds to the NI account as soon as the monies appear on the HMRC account.

[PhaseThree]

I've just been through this - took about 1hour. The first attempt was cut off just as we were being transfered to the correct HMRC department. At the second attempt we were conected to a real jerk who informed us that their system was perfect and that we must have made a mistake on the Self Assesment form. He was about to re-initiate the whole self assesment procedure before we asked him to double check with his collegues. We were finally connected with the correct department who confirmed there was an error with the online systems and gave us reference number for a bank transfer. An altogether painful experience.

[mearnsfool]

We did a bank transfer to HMRC, 4 June as advised above and today, 11 June, the £171.40 payment is showing as being in her HMRC personal tax account and it will be credited in January 2020 according to the site. There was a small amount £18.00 of tax to pay on Gift Aid as no PAYE tax paid last year.

I believe the next job is to get on to the DWP and get them to claim the £153.40 for the Class 2 NI. Therefore we will phone them right on 8:00 am as it is difficult to get through to them later in the day.

[mearnsfool]

An update to paying the voluntary Class 2 NI in the summer 2019 for the 2018 2019 tax year.

I phoned the DWP a number of times to get them to chase HMRC to transfer the money as her State Pension has been in payment since July 2019 with the missing year, reducing the pension payment but gave up as the wrong person was on the help desk the days I phoned them.

I checked the good ladies personal tax account and the payment was still with HMRC at the end of November 2019 and had not been sent to the DWP.

I checked her personal tax account again 27 December 2019, the payment of her Class 2 NI had been transferred to the DWP and her NI record now advised that the 2018 2019 NI year was full.

Today 29 January 2020 we received a letter from the DWP advising that the backpayment is on the way via our bank account.

Not in the bank yet but it is being sorted.