HMRC have it wrong and I have proved it!! Help!

Cbanks86

Hi All

I know that I will be one of many who recieved a letter back in October saying I owe more tax.

Thing is they say that I owe around £1000.00, which means I would have had to earn £5000.00 more, which i can tell you i did not.

The mistake came when my former employer produced the end of year forms. They did it in printed form and when the printing came out the boxes at the bottom did not align propery and HMRC have taken the money earnt this year as previous year, and the total as what i earnt as this year. Hence the sposed under payment of tax. My tax was taken via PAYE, I recieve no type of benefits or company car or have another job, so I was a completely basic rate tax payer, and the sums worked when you looked at what I earnt and what I paid in tax and NI.

I sent of my P60 to clarify as this had been printed correctly and and recieved this back on 23rd December. I havn't had any response from them since. I ring twice a month to make sure its all going though correctly that it will be resolved. I did state in January that I didnt want this to carry on until April as I didn't want it to effect my tax code, and they assured me that I wouldn't, as they have frozen the tax demand pending further responce from the prev employer.

Low and behold it has! My personal allowance has been reduced by the £5000.00. This means I am going to be roughly £120.00 out of pocket every month until it is resolved, and as I proved to them 6 months ago, I'm sure its going to take ages. They are waiting on my former employers to tell them what happened. I have hounded my former employer about this but as I'm no longer there I don't think he sees it as a priority. I have told HMRC and the tax office the name and number of the person they need to contact, but I dont feel they will be fighting my corner as in their eyes I still owe the money.

I am soooooo annoyed with this.The letter came days after my car was written off, and various other events that didnt work out in the favour.

I was wondering if there is ANYTHING I can do to speed the process up. As I cannot afford to loose that money. I know that once its all clarified I should get a rebate, but I have not confidence that this will happen in this tax year (11/12)!!!

Thanks

Cat:(

taxsaver

You need to write to them again, sent by recorded delivery, with copies of your previous correspondence and attachments enclosed. You need to head the new letter URGENT- COMPLAINT.

This will usually ensure something is done about the situation. It is up to you but I would also suggest that you advise them that you are imposing a £100 penalty (which is what they do) and a further £100 for each month that this remains unresolved (again another one of their practices).

BoGoF

taxsaver wrote: »

This will usually ensure something is done about the situation. It is up to you but I would also suggest that you advise them that you are imposing a £100 penalty (which is what they do) and a further £100 for each month that this remains unresolved (again another one of their practices).

Yeah, that will work.......

You need to get your employer to resolve the information by submitting revised P14's (HMRC's equivalent of the P60). As you have said this is an error on the part of your employer not HMRC, only your employer can resolve it

taxsaver

BoGoF wrote: »

Yeah, that will work.......

You need to get your employer to resolve the information by submitting revised P14's (HMRC's equivalent of the P60). As you have said this is an error on the part of your employer not HMRC, only your employer can resolve it

It has worked.... many times!

The OP has made it clear that it is a FORMER employer that made the error and not the current one. The former one has no real incentive to deal with the issue (regardless of the fact that they should).

My original advice holds good.

olivetti

taxsaver wrote: »

It has worked.... many times!

The OP has made it clear that it is a FORMER employer that made the error and not the current one. The former one has no real incentive to deal with the issue (regardless of the fact that they should).

My original advice holds good.

Rubbish, no one can legally impose a penalty on anyone else unless they have a statutory legal basis to do so.

You can claim compensation as long as you can prove you have suffered a loss but you cannot impose an arbitrary penalty.

You can ask someone to pay a penalty but if they do so they are doing it on a voluntary basis. i.e. private car parking tickets and banking penalties.

HMRC will not pay any such penalty.

GraceCourt

olivetti wrote: »

You can claim compensation as long as you can prove you have suffered a loss but you cannot impose an arbitrary penalty.

On that particular point, although you haven't specified what these "end of year forms" actually are (but stated that the P60 was printed OK), bearing in mind they relate to your financial earnings and have your name and (almost certainly) NI number and tax reference on them, they contain "personal data" and as such require your former employer to process that data in accordance with the eight statutory Data Protection Principles (Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998).

Significance? Write to the former employer pointing out that they have clearly failed to comply with the Fourth Principle ("Accurate and up to date"), and possibly with the Sixth Principle ("Processed in accordance with the data subject’s (your) rights"). You would be entitled to proceed against them in the County Court (using Section 13 DPA 1998) for nominal damages, which have been set by the Court of Appeal at £50, but that they can save the Court fee of £25 (online only) by sending you the £50 in full and final settlement of the claim. If they query the £50, refer to the decision in Zeta Jones & Douglas v Hello! Magazine [2003] EWHC 786.

If they won't pay or don't respond, it's a matter for you, but making a claim using the Small Claims Track in the County Court is not as difficult as you might think. There are some excellent online resources (including here on MSE) to assist you, and whilst Court staff cannot give you legal advice, most are very willing to help you with forms, completing them, etc., etc. You can issue your claim online at:
http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

zzzLazyDaisy

If your P60 has been printed incorrectly, look at your last payslip for March. It will give your taxable earnings for the year to end March - only days before the end of the tax year to which the P60 relates, so the figures on the two documents are normally identical. Unless you earned £5000 in the last few days (and your April payslip will show this is not the case) then clearly the P60 is an error.

Whether HMRC will accept this as valid evidence, I don't know, but it has to be worth a shot.

longforgotten

OP says P60 printed correctly, so it must be the P14 that printed incorrectly ?......

So ,as the OP has sent the P60 to HMRC, can we asssume that HMRC are believing it to be false as they have not acted upon it ?

chrismac1

I think it more likely they're just passing the buck. Here is the transcript of a call I had yesterday after a bit of mucking around on the helpline:

Me: "The trouble is that no-one has taken personal responsibility for this case and it's now gone on for 2 and a half years, one year since I was appointed."
HMRC: "That's not fair, I have taken personal responsibility for it."
Me: "So what have you done."
HMRC : "I have passed it on to Jobsworth McDonowt of the Kafka Novel office."
Me: "So in HMRC taking personal responsibility for a case is actually what is called passing the buck anywhere else?"
HMRC : "That's not fair"
Me: "Could I have the phone number of this Jobsworth McDonowt person then please?"
HMRC "No, that's not part of our procedures."

You can't make it up - unless you're called Franz Kafka!

taxing

The mistake came when my former employer produced the end of year forms. They did it in printed form and when the printing came out the boxes at the bottom did not align propery and HMRC have taken the money earnt this year as previous year, and the total as what i earnt as this year. Hence the sposed under payment of tax. My tax was taken via PAYE, I recieve no type of benefits or company car or have another job, so I was a completely basic rate tax payer, and the sums worked when you looked at what I earnt
and what I paid in tax and NI

.

Sorry but I cannot make head nor tail of this.

In particular the part

and HMRC have taken the money earnt this year as previous year, and the total as what i earnt as this year

Are you talking tax years or calendar years here - as there is no place on a P60 for details of your earnings in the previous tax year.

If there are two sets of figures on the P60, one set is pay from previous employment BUT that should relate to an employment in the same tax year as the other set of figures - which will relate to earnings from the subsequent employer.

Both sets count for tax.

Could it be that your tax code went wrong somewhere between jobs?

tell us the 'correct' figures for pay and for tax and what your tax code was, and we can work it out for you.

Sorry to be so dense.

Regards.

P.S. If HMRC have made a mistake, and are stalling, then I agree with the advice to write, marking your letter (very clearly) as a complaint ( keep a copy mind...). HMRC have targets for dealing with complaints so that will spark them in to action.

Bushey

Lesson for everyone here. Always write. dont rely on the Telephone Helpline jobsworths who say over the phone they will do such and such, they arent reliable enough to be able to trust to carry out in detail whats necessary, without the written evidence of your correspondence you can be chasing shadows for months.