MSE News: Have you been sent a wrong tax code by HMRC?

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Huge numbers of taxpayers are being sent the wrong tax codes for the next financial year, which starts in April ..."

Read the full story:
Have you been sent a wrong tax code by HMRC?

TravelExplorer1001

My husband recieved a wrong coding a few weeks ago stating that because he had underpaid tax in 06/07 when working with agencies this needed to be deducted from this coming tax year. This would have been fair enough had he not already paid this in tax year 07/08. Fortunately I spotted the mistake and knew it had already been repaid, but by the sound of things there could be a fair few people affected by these kinds of errors! :mad:

skint-student-nurse

my OH was sent the wrong tax code and HMRC are sending out a new one after he checked with his employer and HMRC that it was wrong.

jestyenot

The year before last when I became a pensioner I was sent 7 different Codes, I would get one with the new allowances on then a week later I woud get a new code with the normal married mans allowance on. I rang them up, they said it was a mistake and said I would get a new one, when That came it had the correct allowances on, this happened 3 mor times when I finally finished up with the proper allowance.
Last year I got a new code, the allowances were correct, but, a few weeks into the tax year I got another code saying I owed money and they were adjusting my code to claim it back. I rang them up because I was sure I didn't owe them anything, they rang back and said that I did, my tax went from £44.20 to £87.52 a month.

I get the standard pension plus £ 120 per week British Coal pension, will be watching them this round of codes.

ScarletBea

Oh yes, even though it's exactly the same error that they had made in September and corrected them after I called them...

Will call them this week to correct, since now I also have a better forecast of the savings that need to be taxed extra, they can correct 2 things at the same time.

chillxxx

My Girlfriend recieved a couple letters from the HMRC, as she was made redudent in September 2007 and claimed job seekers allowance for couple of months until she was back in employment. Despite getting a P45 form the Job Centre and having the correct tax code for April 09. The HMRC have issued two letter from two offices. They appaer to think this year she claiming Job Seekers allowance as well as being in full time work so they have deducted the job seekers benefits this from her tax free allowance and sent this to employer. They've aslo issued a tax code for the benfits offices.

I writen to them some three weeks ago advsing of there errors, but yet to hear anything back it clearly shows that HMRC don't check there work. I can not see any legal reason how some can claim job seekers allowance and be in full time employment!

dzug1

Not yet, but I suspect I fall into the category of people likely to be affected.

John_Pierpoint

In the Cutting Tax forum we have been noticing the problems for a month or two now.
I have been writing "please process my return and let me know how much money you want" letters for 6 weeks now and have not had any sort of reply.

I think the complexity of tax that GB added to the system, plus the bribes in the form of tax credits, has meant that last summer's computerisation has finally broken it in some tax offices.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2240959

I've found a posting of the backlog statistics in this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2137649

miller

Exactly the same thing about medical insurance in the article happened to me too. The basic slapdash assumption is because you had something the previous tax year, you're also going to get it the next tax year until you correct them. That way they get the tax off you sooner, instead of waiting for the P11D from the employer which would actually confirm what you had.

Usually a change of job co-incides with a change of tax office. I learnt:
- "records" must be transferred from the old tax office to the new tax office
- these "records" do not include pay to date etc. that is on your P45 and its crucial this reaches the new tax office so its best to take a copy and send it direct to them with a covering letter
- be prepared to wait for the adjustment, in my case it took 6 weeks
- check the adjustment on your next payslip, I found that although I received the new notice of coding my new employer did not for whatever reason so had to arrange for it to be sent "again"

All in all a bread and butter change made as complicated and slow as possible.

System

Unfortunately for taxpayers, me included, the new PAYE system is designed to take humans out of the equation. The migration of data from the old system to the new has caused the duplication of income sources so resulting in the automatic generation of conflicting codes for the same job or pension.

The government want everyone, employers included, to file electronically and that means no human has to physically look at anything. Errors are then only brought to light when/if the taxpayer contacts a call centre to point it out.

Gradually the government has moved away from a person having their own specific tax office and centralisation is becoming the norm. Many local offices no longer process tax returns or post and any handed in locally are sent to a central office for attention. This is why HMRC no longer meets it's former target of actioning post etc within 15 working days and it probably also explains why they lose so much post too.:(

Sorry for the rant

miller

Its worth saying that when I have rung up the tax office the staff are friendly and polite. I get the feeling they hate a lot of the systems as much as the public do.

What doesn't help them in my opinion is the patronising and officious way a lot of their written communications come across and in particular the "Tax doesn't have to be taxing" phrase.