Tax Underpayment - Help

Woody74

I hope someone can help.

My wife (who worked 2 jobs until recently) has received a letter from HMRC stating she is due approximately £2500 spread over the 2008/09 and 2009/10 Tax Years. She phoned the HMRC and they said that it looks like both jobs were taking into account her Personal Allowance hence the fact that she has underpaid tax.

Just curious to know if this is the fault of my wife that they both took her Personal Allowance into account or is this something that the HR departments of each workplace should have noticed. HMRC told her to write a letter but obviously want to make sure it is worded correctly.

I guess we shouldn't have assumed that both jobs were taxing correctly, any help would be appreciated.

System

If your wife was in employment and then started the second job she should have been given a P46 from the new employer and ticked box C on the front indicating that she had another source of PAYE income. That would have told the second employer to tax her at BR 20%. If they didn't or she ticked the wrong box then that would have caused the duplicate allowances and hence the underpayment.

Woody74

Thanks Pam17, my wife cannot recollect (unfortunately) what had happened at the time of receiving her P46 but she did have a conversation with the HR department of her 2nd job as she was taxed too much (ironically) in her first salary and she informed them that she had a second job. I guess it is her word against theirs as there is probably no proof of this conversation. I'd imagine HMRC would come down on the side of the employer?