My former employer sent the P45 to the wrong address

Tweener

So I left the UK in February, after working there 5 months...My last day of work was 5th of February. I told EXPLICITLY my employer to send my P45 form (which I'm entitled for) to my address in Italy.
What did they do? Or, to be more precise, what did the Bristol central HR office do? They sent it to the address of my first flat in Scotland! I complained about this, but they couldn't send a 2nd copy to my Italian address, because it's illegal to print a 2nd copy (!!!!!! of rule is this?), so they could only send a "simple" letter stating my NI and income tax contributions...
Trying to recover the real and only P45 form is proving to be more difficult than recover the Titanic from the bottom of the ocean...
Is there anything I could do? Suing my employer for the stress? Report them to the HMRC?
Is it true that they can't print a 2nd copy?
Thank you

fengirl_2

It is correct that your employer is not allowed to issue a duplicate P45 in case of fraud.
You need to complete your form P85 in the normal way and send it to your tax office with a covering letter explaining that your employer has sent the P45 to the wrong address and you canot recover it. HMRC will have the top copy of the P45 and be able to process your claim using this.

Tweener

Thank you very much for the quick answer. How long should it take to receive any refund, once the P85 form arrives at HMRC office?

Hammyman

It could be up until April 2011 as that's when all tax needs to be settled for the tax year 2009-2010. I've been waiting for one since March 2008.

fengirl_2

Tax offices are in arrears but its not as bad as Hammyman states - about 8-9 weeks should do it. You can download your P85 from www.hmrc.gov.uk.

Premier_2

Tweener wrote: »

...Is there anything I could do? Suing my employer for the stress? Report them to the HMRC?
...

You could certainly try.

Don't forget that it'll have to be done in a UK court and that you'll almost certainly be expected to attend the heating in the UK ... if your claim gets that far.

Perhaps you could use that opportunity when you travel to the UK to collect your P45 from the address it was sent to?

fengirl_2

Sue them for what exactly? Someone in their office made a genuine mistake, I'm sure it wasn't done to annoy you. To sue them you would have to prove that they deliberately sent the form to the wrong address.
Take my advice as above and deal with the refund as advised.

Tweener

Another thing...I worked in the UK for less than 183 days (5 months and 17 days)? What consequences might this have on refund of income tax, since I was not resident?
Thank you