Right to demand my P60?

Tiffer

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the correct forum but I hope so. I have an issue at work with my income tax. I am a part-time employee working for a major national high street retailer since 03/08/2003. I work 22 hours per week occasionally doing extra hours at peak periods. I have recently discovered that since my start date I have been paying income tax at the basic rate according to my payslips and previous years P60s. I believe this to be incorrect and have spoken to the tax office involved who have stated that they can sort out this years (2006-7) overpayments with the information I gave them from my most recent payslip. The person I spoke to agreed that I shouldn't be paying tax at the BR code.

For the previous year's overpayments he said I needed to send them my P60s from the years concerned and they would investigate the matter and refund me any monies due. I have found my P60s from the years 2004 (Covers start in 2003-2004) and 2005 (Covers 2004-2005). I couldn't find my last year (2006) P60 and was advised when I spoke to my HR dept to email my Payroll dept and request a copy.

I have emailed my employers Payroll department stating the issues and requested the copy and they have wrote back and are so far refusing to provide me with the document and I quote:

It does not follow that you were on BR code by mistake and does have something to do with your being part time.

The TAX office adjusts your tax codes each year.

I will pass this up to a senior colleague to take a look at, as I am not sure if we would issue another P60.

I am currently quite annoyed about this reply and wondered if anyone knows if this information is correct and whether I have the right to demand a copy of my P60 as I wish to get this matter sorted out by the tax office as soon as possible. I have never paid tax at the BR rate with any of my previous employers where I have worked part-time.

Any advice would be appreciated.

oldwiring

See this re duplicate P60s

Debt_Free_Chick

I think you need to be careful here - they have already issued your P60 and you've lost it? If that is the case, then they could issue a duplicate, but this would be a gesture of goodwill as they are under no obligation to do so.

Essentially, you are asking them to do you a favour - they have already fulfilled their legal obligations by issuing the first one.

The rest of their reply is kind of right - they only deduct tax according to the code issued by the tax office. They can't simply "make up" a code (but they can apply BR until they get the correct code).

BR might be the right code for someone who has another job, where the tax code for that job already includes their allowances. So they get the allowances shown in the code for the other job and therefore BR for this job.

Getting the right tax code is a matter between you and the tax office. The tax office then tell your employer which code to apply.

HTH

oldwiring

Have you got the payslips? If so you could ask TO to accept them as evidence

ctm_2

If your employer won't give you a duplicate P60, just ask them for a letter stating your earnings for the year and the tax paid.

TrikerAndBiker

Since the 2005/2006 payroll year each employer is obliged to produce a copy P60, if requested to do so by their employee however there is nothing to stop the employer charging for this service as they will already have produced an original for you.

WHA

TrikerAndBiker wrote: »

Since the 2005/2006 payroll year each employer is obliged to produce a copy P60, if requested to do so by their employee however there is nothing to stop the employer charging for this service as they will already have produced an original for you.

Have you the link for that as I don't think that is right. HMRC used to actually prohibit an employer issuing a duplicate P60, but they now allow an employer to do so, but I havn't seen anything that compels the employer to do so, although I am happy to be proved wrong if you have the link.

ctm_2

TrikerAndBiker wrote: »

Since the 2005/2006 payroll year each employer is obliged to produce a copy P60, if requested to do so by their employee however there is nothing to stop the employer charging for this service as they will already have produced an original for you.

To make it clear, the employer is NOT obliged to provide a duplicate P60. They can provide duplicate pay and tax in the form of a letter, or a duplicate P60.

You may not make any friends with your payroll department if you storm in demanding a duplicate that they aren't obliged to issue. HMRC will accept a letter stating pay and tax details in place of a P60 as long as it is clearly from the employer (i.e headed paper).

If your payroll won't provide the details then HMRC are able to request the details from them.