In need of help! - Made big, big tax mistakes

iheartcocktails

Hi all,

Well... I've been fretting about some mistakes I've made with my tax. In fact it's been keeping me awake with worry but I've fallen into the trap of running away from it and hoping it goes away.

I started with working in a supermarket back in May 2004. While I was there I took on another job which I left after a year. For the life of me I don't think I received a P45 when I finished but as I was starting uni etc I forgot about this and carried on with life in the supermarket. The years passed on and I got two more jobs whilst still working in the supermarket. When these ended I didn't do anything with the P45s. Don't ask me why but I didn't. When I recieved letters saying I had a gap in National Insuruance Contributions I rang up and said they must have the wrong info. Was told to write a letter. When I left the supermarket I again did not hand my P45 in for fear of the mess I've got myself into.

All in all I've been paying way too much tax for years which might sound like a good thing but I'm afraid of what the tax people are going to say and whether I'm going to be fined. I really could not care less about the money! I've just started a new job - a professional job - and I just want it sorting. I know I've got to bite the bullet but I want to know what's going to happen.

I really need someones advice!!!!

tigtag02

'calm down dear'

The tax office are not going to fine you. What you need to do is write to them with all your P45's/P60's and ask them to look into if they owe you a rebate.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think you have overpaid tax anyway?

iheartcocktails

I know, I know I've been a complete stress head about this!! I've been paying basic rate for ages now.

Just completely financially rubbish hence why I'm on here!

Keeping_Motivated

Why do you think you can be fined for this?

They probably own you money if you have paid tax at the emergency rate for all your jobs.

CLAPTON

no real facts to go on here

if you'ld like to post up your earning and tax paid and tax code for each year you're concerned about we could help better.

DebtHater

tigtag02 wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, why do you think you have overpaid tax anyway?

If you dont hand in your P45, your new employer has no idea what your tax code is and no proof, you cant just say "my tax code is XXXX", they need to see it in writing on a P45.

If your new employer, and in the OP's case of several employers, do not have your tax code, you will be put on BR code (basic rate, 20%)

So the OP has overpaid, as they have not had their tax-free allowance and have been paying tax at 20%

McKneff

Stop worrying ............
They probably owe you money.

You dont hand your P45 in, where do you think you hand it in to.
At the end of employment, there are 3 parts to a P45
one stays at the employment
one is sent to the tax office
The last one you keep to pass on to your next employer, if you dont hand this in, your new employer gets you to fill in a P60. which you probably did and forgot about.
I think you are getting a bit mixed up so ou need to get it sorted for your own peace of mind, but please stop stressing. good luck

PlutoinCapricorn

Do bear in mind that they may only allow you to go back 6 years, so get on the case soon or you may lose refunds for 2004. If you look at other threads, you will see that people are claiming refunds for several tax years for a variety of reasons. A good covering letter with whatever evidence you have in the way of P60s and P45s or even payslips is very useful, but your employers should have been filing too so HMRC probably have a lot of info. scattered around various tax offices. It might be worth ringing your current tax office - whatever one your current/next employer is with - to ask for some basic advice, but they are at their busiest at this time of year. If you want to get some background information, Citizens Advice are very good.

Don't worry, just think of all the money that you might get, and what you are going to do with it! Have you tried to calculate it yet?

trevormax

Not a lot of useful info to go on here really. We need to know if you had a tax code for the supermarket job and if you earned more or less than the personal allowance each year in the supermarket job (what was your gross earnings before tax and NI). If you did have a tax code for it and you did earn more than the personal allowance for it then any income earned from other sources (like a second job for example) SHOULD be taxed at BR.

If you could let us know about the tax codes for each job and if possible the pay and tax for each year, we can find out if you are owed money.

LeeSouthEast

They're not going to fine you, stop panicking. Worst case scenario is they send you a big fat cheque with your name on top.

Mary_Hartnell

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

Do bear in mind that they may only allow you to go back 6 years,

I think I'm right in saying it is NOT 6 years.
I fell into this trap some years ago where I rushed to meet the 5th of April deadline only to have my efforts completely ignored.
If I remember correctly you have to get the claim in by the end of January making it 5 years and about 10 months????

400 quid down the pan if I remember correctly.