Older people unable to deal with tax complexity

HMRC is making the tax system too complex for older citizens, resulting in many paying too much tax, a report by the National Audit Office has found.

The complexity of the system has resulted in an estimated 1.5m older people having overpaid their taxes and 500,000 under paying myfinances.co.uk reported.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: "Older people want to pay the right amount of tax but too many pay more than they need to because they do not claim allowances to which they are entitled and because of errors."

It is estimated 3.2m did not claim additional allowances as they did not realise they were entitled to them.

NAO claims allowances will increase the average income by up to 4%.

HMRC is to implement a computer system next year to address the problem.

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