HMRC has provided a short update on the issue affecting Class 2 National Insurance calculations, where some self-assessment customers are seeing Class 2 National Insurance charges added to their accounts which should not be there. 

It has now identified the root cause of the issue and is working with its IT partner to implement a fix. The resolution appears to be relatively straightforward and HMRC expects that it can be delivered promptly.

The issue only affects customers who are self-employed with profits above £12,570, who have already filed a 2024-25 SA return and received an SA302 with a correction message (CSM22).  

HMRC has stated in a further update:

We’re working to resolve the issue which we became aware of on 9 May affecting some Self Assessment taxpayers in relation to Class 2 National Insurance contributions for the last tax year. 

The nature of the error depends on individual circumstances, but in general, customers with self-employed profits above £12,570 have seen Class 2 NICs charge of £358.80 added to their accounts when they shouldn’t have been, although in some circumstances it will be less. 

We’ve already taken action to correct the Class 2 NICs figure in circumstances where the information we hold has allowed us. If this applies to your clients, they will have received a message to let them know. We will correct the records of other customers after the issue has been resolved and again, notify them when we have done so, so there is no need for customers to contact us.  

We are expecting to have the issue resolved by the end of July at the latest and will be correcting records before any incorrect amounts due impact the tax owed for 2024–25.  While we understand this may be concerning, we want to reassure you that there should be no long-term impact.

We’d also like to reassure you that customers who may have made a payment will either be refunded or have a credit added to their Self Assessment statement. 

Practitioners may wish to inform impacted clients about the update to the issue and that HMRC is working on a fix to the error which occurred as a result of HMRC system fault.