HELP! The tax office made a mistake and left us in dire straits

catherineHough

My Husband got a new job in December last year, and in January the Tax Office changed his tax code which I thought a bit strange as he only had a £1,000 per year increase. However in January we got a big shock to see we were £700 down in our usual salary. My husband rang the tax office (1 hour out of his day wasted) and they said because he received money owing from his last job and a salary from his new job in the same month the tax office immediately assumed he had 2 jobs and doubled his tax. "Dont worry" they said it will be sorted in the next months salary. February pay day has arrived and it has not happened. The tax office say they emailed my husbands company and the company said they received no email. The tax office cannot tell my husband what email address it was sent to and my husbands company say they cannot change the tax code without the tax office. They also say that tax refunds are not done in bulk that they will be done over a course of months. In the meantime we are now nearly £900 overdrawn, we are in the process of moving house to be nearer to his works and we need money to do this and now I just dont know where to go with this. Surely it cant be legal to leave us in this position. And surely my husband cant be expected to spend hours out of each day chasing up the tax office.

We are desparate for advise if anybody has any.

antrobus

It would be heplful if you could post some figures regarding both pay and the actual tax codes issued.

I suspect the real issue is the new tax code issued.

System

Ask HMRC to reissue the code they sent to the new employer.

The usual process is for the employee to pass P45 parts 2 and 3 from your old employment to the new one. If your husbands old employer did not send the P45 part 1 out prior to the new employer notifying HMRC that your husband was a new employee then HMRC would not know that your husband had left the old employer and so they would have issued a BR code to the new employer as a second employment.

HMRC do not see what pay an employee receives each week or month and from whom that's why they rely on employers and employees to let them know when changes occur.

Tax codes are sent to employers and employees. The date on your husbands PAYE coding notice will tell him when HMRC sent it the first time. If it was too late for the February payroll run then that's why nothing has changed yet. However HMRC can issue it again and the sooner the better to get it in time for March.

catherineHough

His code was 747L and it got changed to 360T which meant for january we were £700 down to the normal monthly salary. The tax office say they emailed the ammended code to the company early February. Company say they never got it. Tax Office wont say what email address they sent it to claiming that it is done automatically so they cant check. Marks company a multi-billion company which I would not like to name say they have done a full system check and they have not received it even to this date. So each side is blaming the other and my husband is spending hours on the phone to HR or Tax Office.

System

Ask HMRC to reissue the code. If he wants he can make an appointment at his local HMRC enquiry centre and see if they can fax the new code to his employer (if they accept faxed codes).

Codes are sent automatically electronically or on paper and there would be no email address.

Mikeyorks

catherineHough wrote: »

Tax Office wont say what email address they sent it to claiming that it is done automatically so they cant check.

Which is likely correct. Process explained here :

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/changes/new-tax-code.htm

As Pam says - just get HMRC to reissue it. Didn't your husband get a (paper) copy?

catherineHough

yeah we got a paper copy of the new tax code but his company said they are not allowed to accept his copy it has to come from the tax office.

Mikeyorks

catherineHough wrote: »

yeah we got a paper copy of the new tax code but his company said they are not allowed to accept his copy it has to come from the tax office.

But if he sticks it under their nose then their payroll Dept can ring HMRC and say 'where is our copy'! Or - equally likely - can look online and find they've missed it?

antrobus

catherineHough wrote: »

His code was 747L and it got changed to 360T which meant for january we were £700 down to the normal monthly salary.

Changing the taxcode from 747 to 360 would have that sort of effect.

catherineHough wrote: »

The tax office say they emailed the ammended code to the company early February. Company say they never got it.

Are you saying that the taxcode was changed again from 360T to something else?

catherineHough

Yeah tax code changed back to 747 until April when it will change to 810L

Mikeyorks

Post #8 ??

I know employer's can't accept the employees P2. But the fact it exists can be used to provoke them into direct contact with HMRC. And ask where their copy (P6) is.