Dreaded "Underpaid Tax" P800 Letter

antonic

HMRC will not issue duplicate P45`s/P60`s - indeed on my last P60 it tells me to retain for at least 22 months.

BUT, you can ask for a letter showing your income tax/deductions from pay.

As other posters have stated ESC A19 is not applicable as HMRC are in time.

carhandle wrote: »

Chrisbur, Jennifernil, I’m not much good at record keeping and would not be sure where these documents would be. I’ve moved house recently and they might have been misplaced (he says, looking for limp excuses).

I did have some taxable benefits at my previous employer and I did make pension contributions.

If I was requesting a copy of my P45/P60 documents, where would I go?

AirlieBird

carhandle wrote: »

If I was requesting a copy of my P45/P60 documents, where would I go?

You'd go to your employers. Duplicate P45s cannot be issued under any circumstances. Duplicate P60s can be issued at the discretion of the employer but must be clearly marked duplicate. Alternatively request a Statement of Earnings which your employer must give you on request.

chrisbur

carhandle wrote: »

Chrisbur, Jennifernil, I’m not much good at record keeping and would not be sure where these documents would be. I’ve moved house recently and they might have been misplaced (he says, looking for limp excuses).

I did have some taxable benefits at my previous employer and I did make pension contributions.

If I was requesting a copy of my P45/P60 documents, where would I go?

As advised you need to contact the employers concerned and ask for details of all end of year details sent to HMRC.
If you no longer have these documents where are you getting the pay and tax details from that you quote, are they from old payslips? If they are can you give full details from these, taxable gross to date tax paid to date tax code and basis NI code and amount paid and how often paid (ie weekly monthly four weekly etc)?

Are you sure that you have not applied for a tax refund by P50 or letter, as it seems strange that your total tax paid according to HMRC is less than the tax paid in your first employment?

jennifernil

I think OP meant he had made a mistake in his first post when he stated the total tax paid in his first paragraph.

OP.....you need to start over with the figures.....what exactly do you know to be correct?

Also, if you had benefits, these usually reduce your Tax Code.

carhandle

Hi again Jennifer, sorry for the confusion I've caused with my poor arithmetic!

These are the full year figures per the HMRC letter I got:

PAYE Income = £53,123 (and Tax Paid = £10,227.86)
Personal Allowance = £6,475
Income tax is chargeable on £46,648

Tax on £46,648 is:
Basic Rate @ 20% on £37,400 = £7,480
Higher Rate @ 40% on £9,248 = £3,699.20
Tax Chargeable = £11,179.20

Tax Underpaid = £11,179.20 - £10,227.86 = £841.34

Of the £53,123 i earned, I have my payslip for Period 12 from my new employer. This shows:

Gross and Taxable Pay = £4,384.62
PAYE = £914.26

I don't have info from my previous employer, but subtracting new employer figures from HMRC full year figures these would be:

Gross Pay = £48,738.38
PAYE = £9,313.60

I have now got contact details for my previous employer and shall request a "Statement of Earnings" from them. So that should hopefully clear any guesswork/self-calcs.

Does this help clarify everything (or indeed anything)?

Thanks to all for input so far.

jennifernil

Yes. You do seem to have paid too little tax, as they say. The problem looks to come from your first employer, so until you get the figures from them, you won't know where it went wrong.

Pension payments do reduce taxable, unless you were using salary sacrifice, but benefits (what were they?) are normally coded out, but could be a year in arrears.

Did you get any P11Ds (statement of benefits)?

carhandle

I don't recall ever having seen a P11D.

I did receive, from my previous employer, a car allowance, healthcare, i also paid into a DB pension scheme.

Would the Statement of Earnings include reference to these benefits or would i need to get this P11D? And if i need to get this, can i ask someone for one?

chrisbur

You need to find out the correct figures for your first employment in the year. You need taxable gross figure tax paid figure tax code at end of employment month number when final payment made and details on any P11D.

The tax code of 647L you quote would be the emergency code used by your second employer and may not have been the code your first employer was using.

One possibility is that a lower tax code was being used by your first employer and final payment was actually made in month 12, this would cause an underpayment, but without the full and correct details everything is a guess at the moment.

carhandle

Thanks all for your valuable assistance. I've asked my ex-employer for Statement of Earnings, P11D details etc and shall be back for more help once I'm better armed with facts!

Thanks again.

BoGoF

chrisbur wrote: »

One possibility is that a lower tax code was being used by your first employer and final payment was actually made in month 12, this would cause an underpayment, but without the full and correct details everything is a guess at the moment.

I would agree with this being the probable reason for the underpayment, i.e. the first employer made the final payment in month 12 meaning the full personal allowance and basic rate band had already been used. When the 2nd employer also made their first payment in month 12 he then received the benefit of another months allowance/basic rate band. Nobody's fault, sometimes these things happen.