Unresolved billing issue after FTTC migration

We migrated from Zen Pro to Zen Fibre Active on 8 January, but our most recent invoice still showed Zen Pro and we are being overcharged by just under 30p plus VAT per month. I know it's not a lot, but we don't want money charged in one tax year and refunded in the next, as our Internet costs are a partial business expense and this sort of thing can draw unwanted attention from HMRC.

We've written to the e-mail address for billing queries on the invoice and got a nonsensical reply with a garbled migration date that went on about accounting folios (which aren't publicly visible) and implied the problem is just one of product description (which is wrong, but the main issue is the wrong price). We've written back and heard nothing. Is there someone at Zen who can PM me for an account name and get this sorted?

More generally, is there something wrong with billing when people migrate from one product to another?

Hi

Im sorry to hear about the problems that you have had, if you can please send me you Zen user name and ill look into this for you

It's barely £1 this tax year. I can't why it should attract special attention from HMRC. They must be used to carrying over business expenses, & income, from 1 tax year to the next.

Of, course you are entitled to get the overcharge refunded from Zen when they can sort themselves out, but I don't see that time is of the essence.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

It's barely £1 this tax year. I can't why it should attract special attention from HMRC. They must be used to carrying over business expenses, & income, from 1 tax year to the next.

You're quite right - but if you have any involvement with accountancy, are self-employed or are a company director, you will probably be aware that HMRC are much quicker to start an investigation than they previously were.

The family member whose business interests are involved here had an investigation for the 2011-12 tax year, seemingly because of expenses that had been correctly claimed by their accountant but looked unusual to the Revenue. The investigation was closed with HMRC acknowledging that all was in order - but not before the person involved and their accountant wasted time dealing with it.

Paying expenses in one tax year for a refund to come the following tax year looks strange, especially when the event giving rise to the overpayment happened well before the end of the tax year. Though the amount in this case is de minimis, it gives the impression of moving income from one tax year to the next. There's no reason for any carry over from one tax year to the next in this case, as the approximately eight weeks remaining in the tax year is plenty of time to sort out the Zen billing issue.

In reply to a post by David_W:

if you have any involvement with accountancy, are self-employed or are a company director, you will probably be aware that HMRC are much quicker to start an investigation than they previously were.

It's not just the aforementioned that they investigate out the blue.

Last year HMRC hit me with a random (?) Compliance Check, querying why I hadn't declared or paid tax on my untaxed interest. What they they hadn't realised cuz they hadn't been told by my Building Soc., so they said, that the untaxed interest was tax-free ISA interest .

Of course, on my Tax Return I am enjoined not to include ISA interest. Still if you have declared correctly, you have nothing to fear from HMRC.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Wed 06-Feb-13 19:43:20)

Then again of course, HMRC can often get it completely wrong...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21411506

David_W -surely this will have rectified itself by the March bill? That would be my educated guess.

Storm in a teacup! It really makes no odds either way.