Way around HMRC call centres?

Gertie_Walker

I shall be grateful if anyone with inside knowledge or experience of these things could give me a steer.
I am dealing with the winding up of an insolvent charity on an informal basis in order to maximise payments to the creditors and save money.
The charity has 8 staff, all of whom are being made redundant today. The payroll was done by another agency who, of course, are unable to do any further work as they will not get paid. They have sent me details up to the end of October and I have run the November payroll. However, they are unable to supply a PAYE reference so I cannot contact the employer helpline to order the P45's I need.
I have spoken to the general employer helpline who cannot trace this charity (although all 8 are on PAYE). I cannot trace a paying in booklet, not any other demands from HMRC.
I also want a P35 for this year and P14's - I think they should accept these manually in the circumstances. The helpline will not help me any further and so I have written a letter setting out the situation, but I am now told that the new employer's centre in Newcastle has 62 days post on hand.
I am anxious to ascertain the charity's PAYE liabilities, as well as being able to issue the P45's to the staff who are becoming increasingly eggy.
Any ideas?

Pennywise

Gertie_Walker wrote: »

Any ideas?

Yes, put some pressure on the charity officials to look in their files for the reference number. They must have submitted P35s and P45s in the past, they must have paid over the PAYE so they must have the numbers. It's all too easy for them to say "can't find them" and pass the problem to someone else - trouble is, if you let them, they'll take advantage of you. Why stress yourself out about this when it's really the charity officials who should be stressing, not you.

System

I don't suppose you can ask any of the long term employees for their last P60 as the PAYE ref should be that?

olly300

Pam17 wrote: »

I don't suppose you can ask any of the long term employees for their last P60 as the PAYE ref should be that?

Ask the employee if you can take a photocopy and do it in their presence - they will be worried that they won't get the P60 back.

Murdina

I find it quite worrying that the payroll agency cannot provide the PAYE ref - I would honestly start to wonder if they have been doing their job, especially if HMRC could not readily find you either.

Any document (payslip P60 etc) the employees have had should show PAYE ref. Any of the employees could be asked to call HMRC and find out by giving their NINO what the ref is.

The charity must have been paying PAYE - can it not find anything in its bank records? The pay reference they use will probably contain enough to show HMRC what the reference is. Or do they give the funds to the payroll agency to pass on rather than paying HMRC direct - normally a payroll agency would just tell you what to pay when so if it has been taking the money again I would be a little nervous............

Gertie_Walker

I will try an contact one of the employees - never thought of that. Have been into the office and its a right mess,but they have now had to hand in the keys.

The payroll bureau is part of another charity and Im sure they are kosher otherwise the place would be full of HMRC distraint notices. They are refusing to act, its not that they dont have the info. They have been paying the PAYE direct but there are no ref no's on the cheque book stubs - and the yellow payment book cant be found.

What has annoyed me is that I am telling HMRC that I am trying to find out exactly what is owed to them, ie public money, and they are treating me like a scammer!