£8000 unexpected underpayment of tax due to a catalogue of errors with tax office and

family_man

A thank you to Jem for checking my figures it is greatly appreciated and you have been really helpful:A. As for offering to check 10-11 deductions, hopefully there will be no need too and there shouldn’t be any more unexpected bills.

I was on a BR code this year but after the P800 fiasco and an investigation with my employer and HMRC it was corrected, and yes I was worrying about another 10-11 bill to add on to the pile. I then later found unexpectedly that one of my monthly wages had the biggest part of it taken out in tax, which was another problem for me. After phoning HMRC to check someone told me it looks as if they had balanced up the tax for the entire year by doing this. It was extremely awkward but at least one good thing is hopefully the tax calculation for the year is now as it should be, as the last thing I want is to add even more to the debt.

I have said to Jem that I do realise what a fool I have been all along now by not checking the tax code and I do take responsibility for it. It is just if I had known a year ago what was happening and if HMRC sent out a p800 when they were upgrading the system, it would have made my life a lot easier. They had the underpayment information from 08/09 but did not act upon it which led to a further underpayment in 09/10, which was an even greater amount and it has compounded the problem for me. (I can’t even remember anyone ever sending me a p800 before this job).

I know ignorance is not an excuse but I have talked to lots of people about my situation and asked them what tax code they are on and how is it calculated, and the majority of people say I’m not really sure to be honest. I believed this was one of the advantages to working PAYE that it was the employers responsibility to deduct the correct amount of tax from your wages and that they would have followed procedures to process P45’s. Even working PAYE I will not trust my HR department or payroll to look after my tax deductions in future.

The overtime has now gone and I am glad to be honest as I had no life, but I could do with that money now to pay the bills off.

jem16

jimmo wrote: »

I really think you will struggle. Also the regular HMRC knockers on this forum have gone quiet. They should be better than me on this but I fear their silence speaks louder than words.

Jimmo I think you have misunderstood my intentions. My offer to help family_man was purely to see if the figures from HMRC were correct just in case there was an error and some income was included twice - it has happened where some have been listed as having two jobs instead of one.

jem16

family_man wrote: »

[I will not trust my HR department or payroll to look after my tax deductions in future.

Trust no-one but yourself in the case of tax codes.

As I have said to you earlier you should really have made sure your tax was correct after changing jobs but I do sympathise with you over the length of time it has taken HMRC to pick up on this. They had your first P60 information around May/June 09 - when did they first contact you about the underpayment?

family_man

jem16 wrote: »

Trust no-one but yourself in the case of tax codes.

As I have said to you earlier you should really have made sure your tax was correct after changing jobs but I do sympathise with you over the length of time it has taken HMRC to pick up on this. They had your first P60 information around May/June 09 - when did they first contact you about the underpayment?

The first time they contacted me for the underpayment was January 11th 2011, and that was for 08-09 & 09-10.

jem16

family_man wrote: »

The first time they contacted me for the underpayment was January 11th 2011,

Can you just confirm - the first time you heard about the underpayment for 08/09 was 11th January 11? Also was there only ever one P800 which included both 08/09 and 09/10 underpayments?

If so they are within their timescales of informing you as they had until 5th April 2011. I don't think the ESC A19 will therefore apply in your case.

EDIT - I misread date as 11th April and have now corrected that.

family_man

jem16 wrote: »

Can you just confirm - the first time you heard about the underpayment for 08/09 was 11th January 11? Also was there only ever one P800 which included both 08/09 and 09/10 underpayments?

If so they are outside their timescales for 08/09 as they had until 5th January 11.

I had one envelope from HMRC with two P800's in one for 08/09 and 09/10 both date issued 11 January 2011,

Yes I am an idiot with things like this and that’s were I have relied too much on the brains of HR in the past, but when you think your affairs are in order it came as a big shock.

When I phoned and questioned it they said they didnt send it out last year becasue they were upgrading their computer system.

jennifernil

jem16 wrote: »

Can you just confirm - the first time you heard about the underpayment for 08/09 was 11th January 11? Also was there only ever one P800 which included both 08/09 and 09/10 underpayments?

If so they are outside their timescales for 08/09 as they had until 5th January 11.

Is the cut-off point not the end of the tax year following the year in which the information is received?

So for 08/09 info received in the TY 09/10, that would be 5th April 2011, as confirmed by Jimmo above?

jem16

jennifernil wrote: »

Is the cut-off point not the end of the tax year following the year in which the information is received?

So for 08/09 info received in the TY 09/10, that would be 5th April 2011, as confirmed by Jimmo above?

Your are quite right - it's my mistake. I will go back and edit my post.

For some reason I read family_man's post as saying 11th April and not 11th January.

fred_davies

Hi All

I made a claim under ESC A19, for an underpayment they are claiming for in 2007-8. I changed jobs in February 2008 where for some reason it turns out my personal allowance wasn't counted and wasn't taxed properly. I didn't notice this as they are a US employer and I assumed it would all work out during the year.

If I'm gracious and say my employer only got around to telling the tax office six months later, that falls in the 2008-9 tax year. On the HM Revenues website it states, (years swapped for my years)

HMRC should have either issued a tax code or sent a tax calculation for the above receipt of information before 5 April 2010, which is 12 months after the last day of the tax year 2008-09.

My rejection letter from the tax office, referring to them telling me about underpayment on 18th Jan 2011) says:

...I have checked our records and found that we dealt with the information given by you or a relevant third party at the time we received it and within the Extra Statutory Concession A19 time limits. We have therefore dealt with your tax affairs without delay.

This looks like I'm being fobbed off, according to information provided by MSE forum goers. HMRC have purposely not stated when they received the information, and I find it hard to believe it took my new employer over a year to provide the information.

Basically, it'll be a battle as they won't provide you the facts.

Anyone - would it be worth me asking my previous and current HR departments when they told the tax office about me, or am I wasting my time? Or have I got something wrong in my calculations too? Either that or they'll argue the 'reasonable' thing...

Perhaps I'll write to Philip Green or Vodafone, see how they got out of their millions in tax. Its no wonder HMRC have to chase us for money when they let the big boys off so easily.