Tax rebate

js374

Evening MSE, this is my first post so please be kind,

I am in a little bit of a quandary and I am sorry that this is going to be quite a long post.

Setting the scene:
I did a year in industry as my third year of university from July 08-09. In the 09 tax year on placement I paid roughly £300 in tax. When my placement finish I then proceeded to work for a month at a hotel during the summer. In this time I paid roughly £40 in tax. I left in August 09 and finally after some chasing received my P45 in December 09. I have just recently discovered the P45s from placement and hotel and the related pay slips. All in all my total salary before tax for tax year 09-10 was £4500. This, you notice is substantially less than the personal allowance for that year.

The interesting bit:
I recently received a rebate from HMRC for £35. I examined my P45 from the hotel and noticed that they had put the "total tax paid to date" as £-305, a negative number.

When I contacted HMRC today they said that that means my employer has repaid the tax in my salary. I have my pay slip from the hotel and they have done no such thing. When I spoke to the hotel they said they had no record from that long ago so there was nothing they could do. This sounds a little dodgy to me but they were dreadful when I worked there so is not a massive surprise.

Questions:
Have they basically just shafted me by claiming back my tax but not passing it on and keeping it for themselves or is this likely a mistake?
Is there anything I can do as they are denying all knowledge of what they paid me?

Thanks for wading through that and for any suggestions about how to proceed.

TLDR: Hotel i worked for appear to be trying to keep my tax rebate for themselves. What can I do?

chrismac1

if you post or PM me the Gross Pay, Tax Code, Month or Week of leaving and final tax code from each P45 I can tell you pretty quickly where the error is and - if applicable - how to get the tax back.

suso

Initially you need to talk the issue up with the hotel, if the P45 doesn't match your payslips, they can reissue corrected records.

Employers are required to keep payroll information for at least 3 years from the end of the tax year concerned, so they will still be required to have the information from 09/10 to until april 2013 at least.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/faqs/nicqemp.htm#6

If no success with the hotel, then write to HMRC and enclose payslips and the P45 and copies of the letters showing you are contesting the P45 info and the employer is refusing to assist.

No point phoning HMRC as this sort of case needs paperwork to be investigated properly.

chrisbur

js374 wrote: »

The interesting bit:
I recently received a rebate from HMRC for £35. I examined my P45 from the hotel and noticed that they had put the "total tax paid to date" as £-305, a negative number.

When I contacted HMRC today they said that that means my employer has repaid the tax in my salary. I have my pay slip from the hotel and they have done no such thing. When I spoke to the hotel they said they had no record from that long ago so there was nothing they could do. This sounds a little dodgy to me but they were dreadful when I worked there so is not a massive surprise.

Are you sure that the P45 had a negative number in the total tax paid to date item that is item 7 on the P45? This should never be a negative number, the only place a negative number could appear is item 8 total tax in this employment.
Can you give full details from item 6 7 and 8 code plus all pay and tax details?