DH owes money to the taxman but can't pay

Try Citizens Advice?

Cosmos I am so sorry that you are in this position.
I Googled "Help cant pay tax bill", and it came up with this. See picture.

Otherwise the CAB is a good place to start.

Friends of mine used one of those agencies but they had no assets. They had already sold their house the previous time he had got into debt.
They go through your income and outgoings allow so much for this and so much for that, don’t allow you to have any credit. They then negotiate with the firms etc to whom the money is owed and arrange payments. I don’t think it’s what I would want to do and if you have assets I don’t know if that avenue would be open to you.
He needs to talk to the tax office. If he won’t then you have a problem.
Could you remortgage your BTLet?
Then sort him out! Easier said than done I know.tt

That’s useful Auntieflo

My only info is from watching debt-collecting programmes on TV.

The debt collectors usually require half the debt upfront and then a payment plan. If the debt cannot be paid they will remove assets.

It doesn’t help you now but payment plans can be set up easily if the problem is dealt with straight away, if he contacts the agency now, before they turn up at your house maybe something could be arranged.

You could ask for advice from Stepchange or CAP ( Christians against poverty). Both offer free advice re debts and can negotiate payment plans. Hope you can sort it together.

He has spoken to HMRC. They wanted a list of our outgoings. The tax bill is just on my DH's business earnings. The only bills he pays out of that are his phone and insurances. He just burns through the rest of his money.

Theexwife - I didn't realise that they would accept half of the money and then instalments. Not that he has half of the money. I have told him to sell some of his stuff and use that to pay part of the bill off. I have been telling him to contact HMRC since January when he said he couldn't pay the bill. He is an ostrich

The issue here is not how he can pay, it is the reason why he is on this position initially

I would go to a lawyer and see how his financial irresponsibility affects you

It is not the fact that he is careless about money, he is also not taking any steps towards addressing this.

Did he provide HMRC with the information they requested PinkCosmos?

The mistake he's made on top of not having made provision to begin with, is not dealing with this at the time. A payment plan could have been arranged with HMRC if he'd acted responsibly when he knew there was a problem.

I agree with Hithere you need to see if and how this could affect you.

I regret this person is a classic example of what happens when you bury your head in the sand.

Setting aside, that as a self-employed person, presumably over many years, he should have been setting money aside every month to pay tax, his refusal to contact the tax authorities, as soon as he realised he had a problem paying, is going to make matters much worse.

If the HMRC are now contacting debt collectors this suggests that the tax authorities have made more than one attempt to contact him and he has persistently ignored them. He is in deep difficulty, because they will be very unwilling to settle for any 'nominal' payments.

One possibility is for you, is not to sell your rental property, but for you to take out a secured loan, the security being the house itself and repaying the money from the rent you receive.

Either way, you need to talk to one of the FREEdebt help agencies. The two main ones are:
Step Change www.stepchange.org/
National Debtline www.nationaldebtline.org/

PinkCosmos he probably has a bill that will be due by the end of July as well. Is he being honest with you about his liabilities?

Has he always behaved like this or could there been underlying health issue? Maybe a trip to the GP is needed.

Are there other problems here?
Alcoholism depression, gambling addiction?

Does he employ an accountant?
If so he/she should be your first port of call.
The longer he buries his head in the sand the bigger the debt will be.
I suggest you separate what assets you can from your husband, putting your rental property in your name could be a start.

Good luck.

If you are hopeless with money don't be self employed!
Think you need to work with him to tackle this. Or else distance yourself.
But having someone on his side to help sort it might pull him through.
Depends on your relationship.

You can pay it in instalments but he will have to contact them. Burying his head is not an option.

Golly PinkCosmos you deserve a medal for maintaining a marriage with this man. The situation you describe would give me hives and I fear that your life with him is not likely to become easier anytime soon.I wish you good luck: your husband not so much.

Frankly, leave him.

mumofmadboys

You could ask for advice from Stepchange or CAP ( Christians against poverty). Both offer free advice re debts and can negotiate payment plans. Hope you can sort it together.

i don't think those services are aimed at people who are landlords.
you are not in poverty or struggling financially if you have an extra house which you could sell to pay your debts.

I have just reread the OP.

The result is that I am entirely in agreement with AmberSpyglass

Me 3

I'm afraid, I agree too. Unless you think he can change. this is likely to happen over and over again. He's constantly making YOU worry about finances and making YOU sort them out.

You've been brilliant about protecting your personal assets to date however, well done you.

You describe him as an ostrich, it sounds like more going on here, that he can be so irresponsible and land you in the *hit trying to sort it out. If you want to stay together is he able do you think to confront his ways in front of a joint counsellor, or does he think his way of going on is actually just fine and why bother when wife can sort it out for him?

Over the years I have had to keep our finances separate as he is so financially irresponsible. My wage/the rent money pays the bills.

Well done you.

Is the rental in your name and/ or your home?

Find your ducks - get them in a row. No selling yet.

I'd call a solicitor - you let this go on some time - quit!

He can afford to pay because he has a house to sell, make sure you keep your own money separate from his because he will have to pay the debt collectors plus interest plus costs.

He needs to avoid selling the house if he can because as it# not his main residence it’s liable to Capital Gains Tax which will reduce its value a lot.