Lost p45 - what to do?

shellsuit

What does a new employer need from a p45?

Parts 2 and 3 were meant to have been sent to them, but they are saying that they have only received one of these sheets.

Can they still make a payment as they are saying they can't BY LAW without a p45 or p46 (even though they have one of the sheets - God knows where the other sheet has gone!! :rolleyes: )

Is what they are saying true??

Hoddie_2

Lack of a P45 or P46 does not mean they cannot pay you. It does, however, mean they're not on the ball as this should be sorted out on your first day or end of your first week at the latest. They do need parts 2 and 3 in order to follow the P45 procedure - they keep one for their records, and send the other to HMRC. However, they should by now have followed the P46 procedure.

Ask for a P46 at your earliest opportunity.

mountainofdebt

you give your new employer a P46 if you've not got a P45 to give them and in the meantime you go onto emergency tax

I think you can down load a P46 from the Inland Revenue website ....just fill in your details, tick what ever boxes are applicable and then give it to your employer so they can fill in their bits and they then return it to the tax office.

The tax office will then write to your employer telling them what tax code to use.

It might be an idea to make a mental note to contact the tax office after the start of the new tax year if you haven't been given a proper tax code as you will probably have paid too much tax in this year as a result of the emergency tax.

shellsuit

mountainofdebt wrote:

you give your new employer a P46 if you've not got a P45 to give them and in the meantime you go onto emergency tax

I think you can down load a P46 from the Inland Revenue website ....just fill in your details, tick what ever boxes are applicable and then give it to your employer so they can fill in their bits and they then return it to the tax office.

The tax office will then write to your employer telling them what tax code to use.

It might be an idea to make a mental note to contact the tax office after the start of the new tax year if you haven't been given a proper tax code as you will probably have paid too much tax in this year as a result of the emergency tax.

Isn't the tax code on all the sheets tho? If so, they will already have it as they have one of the sheets (if that makes sense!)

Hoddie_2

Without both parts of the P45 they can't do one of the following (depending on which piece is missing):

1) Keep Part 2 for their records to show they acted on it in accordance with the rules; or
2) Send Part 3 to HMRC to notify them that you have started working for them, and that they have received the P45 issued by your previous employer (this updates your records and tells HMRC that all is well).

The P46 needs completing as this will achieve both 1) and 2) albeit in a longer-winded way.

Savvy_Sue

shellsuit wrote:

Isn't the tax code on all the sheets tho? If so, they will already have it as they have one of the sheets (if that makes sense!)

I can't remember what's on all the sheets, but they need to know how much you've been paid TO DATE in this tax year as well as your tax code to be sure of getting it completely right.

So you think you sent them pages 2 and 3, and they've misplaced one page? Have you asked whether it's their page or the one they send to the Tax Office? If it's the one they send, is it possible someone's been hyper efficient and sent it off already?

But without a P45, they should just give you a P46, no problem there, except you may pay a little to much tax in the short term. Advice above is correct.

angrygoat

Don't worry too much, this happened to me recently... i ended up paying emergency tax for a few months but was rewarded with my first ever normal tax code for the new year! If you are still worried then speak to your new employer and they will give you some numbers of people to call to sort this out for you. I wish you all the best, good luck!

Hoddie_2

Completing a P46 won't necessarily mean that he pays too much tax. It is true that if he completes the form correctly, his employer will use the emergency tax code until HMRC authorise them to do otherwise. However, the emergency tax code isn't as bad as it sounds - it does give some tax-free allowance and some portions of the 10% and 22% bands, the same as a non-emergency tax code. The difference is that the emergency code does not take into account any income from earlier in the year, which in effect means any repayment due will not be issued or overpayment owing will not be collected until, that is, the emergency code is replaced by the correct code.

HMRC should sort this issue out fairly quickly if a P46 is completed. They should already have the P45 details on file as the previous employer would have sent them a copy. On receipt of the P46 they will update his records and issue the details that the new employer needs in order to replace the emergency code with the correct code - approx. 4-6 weeks at the outside. Only if there's a problem will the emergency code remain in use until the end of the tax year.

shellsuit

Thanks for all the advice, i asked on behalf of a friend who says thanks also.

I have sent them the link to this thread so they will see it in the morning.
Cheers again