Tax refund gone due to Overpayment

hvj1983

Hello,

I've been emailing and speaking to my last employer and HMRC for months because of an overpayment issue on leaving my last job. They didn't process me as a leaver in the correct month meaning I got paid in full for another month. I gave it back but now I have a P45 from them that shows a less amount of tax paid than one of my payslips months before, HMRC now think I haven't paid enough tax, and a tax refund of almost £400 which I was told was due in an email from HR has disappeared due to an "automatic taxing of the overpayment".

When asked for them to explain what that meant they said they had to "minimise the overpayment by claiming back the refund from revenue". Despite a nice woman in payroll explaining clear(ish) about this I can't shake the feeling they've effectively duped me out of a tax refund because of their mistake at not processing me in the right month. Does anyone know if I have a case to sue them for the Tax refund quoted to me by their HR manager? HMRC are useless and just keep telling me I haven't paid enough Tax.

I'm now temping whilst back in study and really need all the help I can get to get anything that might be owed.

paddedjohn

hvj1983 wrote: »

Hello,

I've been emailing and speaking to my last employer and HMRC for months because of an overpayment issue on leaving my last job. They didn't process me as a leaver in the correct month meaning I got paid in full for another month. I gave it back but now I have a P45 from them that shows a less amount of tax paid than one of my payslips months before, HMRC now think I haven't paid enough tax, and a tax refund of almost £400 which I was told was due in an email from HR has disappeared due to an "automatic taxing of the overpayment".

When asked for them to explain what that meant they said they had to "minimise the overpayment by claiming back the refund from revenue". Despite a nice woman in payroll explaining clear(ish) about this I can't shake the feeling they've effectively duped me out of a tax refund because of their mistake at not processing me in the right month. Does anyone know if I have a case to sue them for the Tax refund quoted to me by their HR manager? HMRC are useless and just keep telling me I haven't paid enough Tax.

I'm now temping whilst back in study and really need all the help I can get to get anything that might be owed.

Why are HRMC useless? Is it because they are telling you facts that you don't like to hear?
Just because your wage dept tells you something doesn't mean it's true.
Why do you think you have paid too much? What difference does it make what month you leave work, you still pay tax on anything you earn over the basic £8100/yr.

Notmyrealname

Indeed. If you'd not paid it last year, it would have been paid this year. The only time you'd be out of pocket is if in this year you didn't reach the personal allowance.

hvj1983

right ok, well not everyone is a money grabbing harpy so please don't make assumptions that I just "don't like" what HMRC are telling me. I am seeking helpful advice hopefully from someone that knows facts in tax issues.

A P45 cannot have a less amount of 'tax paid' on it than a payslip from months before, it has now effected my P60 and HMRC think I haven't paid enough tax. Because of this HMRC have been telling me to try and get it re-issues as it's clearly wrong. However on another area of their website they're advising employers to not re-issue P45s under any circumstances. Contradicting themselves = useless.

I have an email from my old HR dep advising me of a tax refund being owed but that it was somehow wipped away from me amongst the overpayment calculation. Does anyone have any knowledge in this area? I have asked them but they don't explain things particularly quickly and they clearly want rid of the situation as I don't work there anymore.

It does make a difference what month I was processed in as if the overpayment confusion never happened I would have received a tax refund at the end of the last tax year.

Anyone not just surfing this website between Jeremy Kyle episodes and applying for payday loans that might be able to assist at all? See I can make silly assumptions too...

ktothema

Can you not go over your bank statements and payslips and see if they correlate? If the net pay calculated on the P45 does not match the pay you've taken home then maybe you have some figures to start arguing about.

hvj1983

Hi Kothema,

That's a great suggestion thank you, the pay does seem to correlate thought just not the tax. Another problem is that because the company changed from posting payslips to an online system I don't have all of them from the entire year - I did make a point of printing off the last 6 months before I left but the last 2 have gone missing. The last one I have is from October 2011 (I left Dec and they accidentally paid me again end of Jan) wich shows a larger amount of tax paid than my P45.

Notmyrealname

hvj1983 wrote: »

A P45 cannot have a less amount of 'tax paid' on it than a payslip from months before

It can if that earlier payslip included an amount in error which is then recovered.

ktothema

hvj1983 wrote: »

Hi Kothema,

That's a great suggestion thank you, the pay does seem to correlate thought just not the tax. Another problem is that because the company changed from posting payslips to an online system I don't have all of them from the entire year - I did make a point of printing off the last 6 months before I left but the last 2 have gone missing. The last one I have is from October 2011 (I left Dec and they accidentally paid me again end of Jan) wich shows a larger amount of tax paid than my P45.

You are entitled to get payslips from your previous employers. They may charge you £10 for the priviledge, but it sounds to me that you'd be better off paying that to get hold of the last years pay slips and see what you've been paid, what they claim you've been paid on payslips and what's on your p45.