BR tax code, please help

xirokx

Hi,

In april 08 I left a job where I was employed for 6 months and never received my P45 only P60..

In June 08 I was contracting for 3 weeks.

On 4th Aug 08 I started a new job and have paid £300 extra in tax because I discovered today I am on the wrong tax code - BR

How do I HMRC to put me on the correct tax code in time for my Nov 08 pay packet? and how do I get this £300 overpaid tax back?

Please help, I have no idea how to get this resolved in a short period of time i.e. before my next pay kicks in and I do not know how to go about getting the £300 back..

Any responses would be much appreciated, if you do reply please make it as simple as possible..

Thanks in advance..

CLAPTON

in the absence of a P45 you should have filled in a P46 when you started your job.
Contract your payroll people and fill in a P46...

xirokx

hi,

I did fill in a p46 advising this was my only job I filled it in on day 1 and handed it in..

if anyone can provide further advice I would be very grateful

Cheers

blue_monkey_2

I would , macontact the tax office. You are clearly on an emergency rate - which is what they put you on before the know your NI number. You also need to send a letter to your last company of employment and ask for a P60. This will heav no bearing on the code you have now though as it runs year to year but you may need it in the future, it always helps to have stuff like this. In the absence of your P45/P60 for this year you can use the figures on your last payslip to tell the IR how much you earned. Why did you not receive a P45?

When you was contracting was you PAYE or was you paid as a Self Employed person?

As soon as your tax code is sorted, as long as you are on PAYE you will get a full refund of any overpayment, if it gets sorted in time for the next packet you will get refunded then, if after the next pay run it will be the month after. Clearly the company you work for now have not been sending the documents to the IR as you then get a letter back stating that employee can go onto the usual tax code (or this is what used to happen, someone eill correct me if this has changed).

The BR code is what gets issued to new employees and you get no 'free allowance' until you declare that this is your only job.

If you was contracting and not paying PAYE you will need to inform the HMRC of this and you will self assess in April 2009 on those earnings.

The answer is you should speak to the Inland Revenue (possibly open on Saturday mornings) and they will advise further, maybe the forms have not arrived, maybe you need to fill out another, the Inland Revenue will help further, please read through this for more advice:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/correct-mistakes.htm

PS. Inland Revenue now wear the same hat as HMRC!

chrisbur

xirokx wrote: »

Hi,

In april 08 I left a job where I was employed for 6 months and never received my P45 only P60..

In June 08 I was contracting for 3 weeks.

On 4th Aug 08 I started a new job and have paid £300 extra in tax because I discovered today I am on the wrong tax code - BR

How do I HMRC to put me on the correct tax code in time for my Nov 08 pay packet? and how do I get this £300 overpaid tax back?

Please help, I have no idea how to get this resolved in a short period of time i.e. before my next pay kicks in and I do not know how to go about getting the £300 back..

Any responses would be much appreciated, if you do reply please make it as simple as possible..

Thanks in advance..

If you selected Box B on the P46 then your employer should be using the emergency code, currently 603L on a week1/month1 basis. Instuctions for the code to use are in their Day-today payroll book E13, page 26.

On the form
P46
Tax code to use

Box A ticked *Emergency code on a
cumulative basis
Box B ticked *Emergency code on a
week 1/month 1 basis

Box C ticked BR code on a cumulative basis

No box ticked BR code on a cumulative basis

xirokx

thanks for your reply..

I have a P60 for this year from the job I was in prior to contracting, I received the p60 in april this year..

When you was contracting was you PAYE or was you paid as a Self Employed person?

I was using an umbrella company whilst contracting..

I never received a P45 from the umbrella company, I only worked as a contractor for 3 weeks should I have received a P45??

Can I not just phone my tax office and explain the situation and send them the p60 i received in april 08 prior to me contracting? Will they put me on the correct tax code if I do? How do I know which tax office to call??

Is this the quickest way around it?

I am really worried I could lost the £300 I have paid extra in tax for the last 2 months - is there a big chance of this happening?

As soon as your tax code is sorted, as long as you are on PAYE you will get a full refund of any overpayment, if it gets sorted in time for the next packet you will get refunded then

by who? my employer or the HMRC? will I have to pay extra tax on this £300 they have taken?

Clearly the company you work for now have not been sending the documents to the IR as you then get a letter back stating that employee can go onto the usual tax code (or this is what used to happen, someone will correct me if this has changed).

I received a letter from HMRC advising me I would be on a "BR" tax code until april 09 - do you still think my current employer did not send the P46 I completed?

Do you think I still need to get the Inland Revenue involved?

All advice would be most appreciated...

Cheers

blue_monkey_2

Hi x,

Sorry, I should have claified. When you PAYE then each week the amount you pay mounts up - if you have overpaid, when you get your next pay slip check the 'Tax' box and you will have a refund that your employer will pay directly to you. The employer then fills these details in on a form and sends them off to the tax office and your records are adjusted accordinally.

Without your coorect details then the records cannot be filled in.

The Umbrella Company, did you get wage slips? Did you get Tax & NI deducted from the wages? If you did then you should have got a P45 when you left as it gives the Tax Office an updated record of how much you have paid. If you was being paid cash or by another method then you need to keep records of this.#

You will not have lost the £300 - the page on the HMRC website tells you this, did you read it, you need to read it as it says what to do if your tax code is wrong. Call them and they will send you information. I've just submitted mine for 2000 - any rebate would have been paid back. This is why it is important to keep everything. Lucky mine was an admin error, my employer got the NI number wrong.

It could be a simple case of the letter to your employer from the Tax Office getting lost in the mail and they will resent.

I do not think you will get the money back this month - maybe cutting it too fine - but it should be in your wages for the end of Novemeber if you get on the ball now.

Call the tax office tomorrow or Monday and get it sorted. BR is Base Rate, everyone is entitled to a tax free allowance so it looks like you've filled the form out incorrectly, that is all. It can be rectified in one simple phone call which your company can do but it is just as easy for you to do. Don't be scared to call them they really are helpful and nice on the phone! They will not bite you.

xirokx

how do I know which tax office to call? are they not located everywhere? or is there one main number? if there is do you know what the number is?

thanks for your help..

blue_monkey_2

I wanted to explain PAYE briefly and how it works but it is quite hard to put down, basically you have a tax free allowance of around £100 a week that you earn without it being subject to tax. Each month, for everything over the £100 you get taxed on and each week this accumulates - week 1 you can earn £100, by week 4 you can earn £400, etc... tax free.

If you are out of work, with no income and come into work at week 7 you will be able to earn £700 tax free before you start getting taxed because it works on an accumative basis over 52 weeks.

However, without a P45 that says you have not earned anything it will be assumed you have worked or have a 2nd job so you will be put on base rate so you will pay tax on the £700 with no allowance until you tell them otherwise.

So let's say you started in week 7 and earned £700 and was on BR and you paid £120 in tax. You get your paperwork sorted and the code is changed to the right one, and on week 8 your companies wages department would have adjusted your records and will see that by week 8 you could have earned £800 free of tax, but you have paid £120 already - so the company will refund this to you and claim it back when they submit their payment after the wage run.

When you PAYE the company takes the money from you and sends it to the HMRC along with details of who has paid what. However, if they pay too much on your behalf they take it off the next payment. Simple as that really. So the emplyee will never lose as long as they are on the correct code and it is done within that year. If it is out of the financial year you will apply to the tax office direct to get your money refund.

So that is it, kind of, I find it hard to explain but you will be fine, just get that code sorted, Call the Tax Office and they can advise you. Read tat link i gave you, it explain it all.

blue_monkey_2

Look on your payslip and there will be a branch on there, call that one as they will be dealing with your records. What office is noted on your payslip? If in doubt call the central office as there is a prefix and they can tell you from that.

Sorry, I am off to bed now as my son will be up at 5am but I'll check in tomorrow, let us know what happens when you call.

xirokx

hey thanks for that - I did read the link

I have found the number for the relevant tax office so I will have a word with them in the morning and get some advise to get this resolved A.S.A.P

really appreciate the support , thanks once again