¤ Mr B was faced with a £700 underpayment because no restriction had been set against his Married Couples Allowance. TOP pointed out the Inland Revenue error and the arrears were remitted.

¤ Mrs C came to TOP for a tax health check. It was noted that although Mrs C was 72, she had at no time received any higher personal allowances. The coding was corrected and £1400 tax was recovered.

¤ Mr & Mrs D contacted TOP about a tax point. On investigation, it was found they had been overpaying tax for years - he was a 10% taxpayer and she was a non-taxpayer. £5000 tax was recovered.

¤ Mrs E was a widow. She came to TOP because she wanted a tax health check. It was found that as two different tax offices issued the Coding Notices on her pensions, this led to incorrect application of her 10% tax band. The Coding Notices were restructured to ensure correct taxation in future.

¤ Mr F retired due to ill health and was receiving Incapacity benefit and two pensions. A catalogue of errors then ensued when one pension disappeared off the Inland Revenue's computer, the Incapacity benefit varied in their estimation by £2000 and the Revenue then attempted to tax Mr F’s Disabled Living Allowance. Everything was eventually put right after a 10-month battle by TOP.

¤ Mrs G had no idea that her interest on her various savings accounts had been paid with no tax deducted. Negotiations by TOP straightened out her widow's pensions and savings over 5 years.

¤ Mr H received notice of a life insurance chargeable event. He did not understand it and so came to TOP for explanation. A small overpayment was spotted and corrected.

¤ Mrs I was recently widowed and no idea what to do about tax. TOP sorted out her late husband's tax and got her own tax affairs organised.

¤ Mr & Mrs J came to TOP as he was disabled on basic State pension whilst she had small NHS pension and continued working, aged 80, to keep them going. TOP managed to ensure that previous overpayments of tax were recovered and that the Married Couples Allowance was transferred to Mrs J to reduce her tax bill.

¤ Mrs K was registered as partially sighted. When helping with her repayment claim, TOP encouraged her to have eyesight re-tested. She subsequently became registered blind and TOP assisted her to claim Blind Persons Allowance.

¤ Mr L came to TOP for a tax health check because he could not understand how the tax was being collected on his various sources of income. TOP checked everything, found all was in order and explained to Mr L in plain English what was going on and that there was no need to worry about his tax position.

¤ Mr M propped up his pension with some bits of self-employment. He came for help with his self assessment form which he found confusing. The TOP adviser helped him complete it and told him to come back next year if he still had problems.

¤ Mr & Mrs N both had some overseas pension and therefore had to complete tax returns. Unfortunately Mr N suffered from Alzheimer’s and could no longer complete or sign his return. TOP arranged with the tax office for a return signed and submitted by Mrs N on his behalf to be accepted.

¤ Mr O thought he was paying rather a lot of tax. TOP discovered that not merely was he paying Basic Rate on one pension but also had it included as a restriction on his coding. TOP had the coding corrected and repayment secured of three years overpayments.

¤ Mrs P, a widow, received a demand for £3500 underpayment. IR had not been collecting tax on her State Pension. Investigation revealed that she had not been sent the form P161 on retiring at 60 and TOP claimed official error and secured remission of the underpayment.

¤ Mrs Q became a taxpayer for the first time in her life at the age of 91 when her second husband died. The assorted fragments of pensions dragged her into the 10% band and she needed some guidance on what she should do.

¤ Mr R moved into a smaller flat and had a little spare capital left over in a savings account. He wanted help to work out if he could sign R85 to have the interest paid without deduction of tax.

¤ Mrs S, 79, with inoperable cancer was pursued by the Revenue for failing to provide tax returns which they had been sending to an address she left 9 years previously. They demanded £1200 in arrears with penalties and interest. Mr S could not help - he was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. The TOP adviser tackled the Revenue and showed that not only did Mrs S not have a tax liability at all, her allowances exceeding her income, but that in fact she was owed a refund. IR apologised and made a consolatory payment.

¤ Mr T was being pursued by the Revenue for a £2000 underpayment.  The TOP adviser demonstrated that in fact the Revenue owed him £1400.  The adviser further pointed out to Mr T’s local authority that they had wrongly calculated his Housing Benefit based on pre-tax rather than post-tax income.

¤ Mrs W went for an eye test at the suggestion of the TOP adviser who then arranged for her to receive the Blind Persons Allowance when she came back registered blind.  He then guided her towards Age Concern who succeeded in claiming Pension Credit for her.

¤ Mrs Y, recently widowed, was assessed as having a tax liability.  The adviser realised that the Revenue had failed to allocate to her the balance of her late husband’s Married Couples Allowance which should continue to the end of the year and which wiped out the tax due.