I am PAYE with a tax shortfall of 16K

elmerfudd_2

Gordon_hutton wrote: »

There is a huge difference between 20% and 40% I agree.

What I find annoying about people like you elmerfudd is that you don't think I am still reading these messages. My name is Gordon.

I was not paying 20% and it is not as simple as you may be.

I get a salary, I get expenses, I get bonuses and I get benefits such as car, health, stock plan and dividend directly from company and a few other things too. None of it is as grand as it may sound.

Maybe you are a genius and I am an idiot but you are missing the point here. It is one of liability and expectation. Now even though I appreciate all comments on here yours is nothing but an attempt to belittle someone who obviously knows less than you.

Well done you.....you are amazing.

Gordon (AKA the OP)

I am not trying to belittle anyone Gordon and as i have just read you are also from the USA so may not be familiar with UK taxation then i empathise with that.

However the fact is you suddenly started paying a lot less tax than you were before, now come on, surely that is something you would question. I imagine if you suddenly started paying a lot MORE tax then you would have.

So many posts on here are blaming HMRC for everything when most of the time it is the fault of wrong/incomplete/no information supplied to them and taxpayers ignoring obvious discrepancies.

jem16

elmerfudd wrote: »

I am not trying to belittle anyone Gordon and as i have just read you are also from the USA so may not be familiar with UK taxation then i empathise with that.

I don't think he's from the US, although may be wrong.

He does say he's currently working in the US and will update with details from his previous P45 when he gets back.

Gordon_hutton

Hi All,

Thanks again for your input. i have been in touch with the TAX office and placed a dispute, at their advising.

Essentially the reason is that I have been on a code that is wrong for a long time and they feel I should have been made aware long before now. So this falls under a Revenue Error issue on their part potentially, we shall see.

What makes this case more difficult is my payslips. From my part they were never regular. I am a consultant so travel around to customer site. My expenses were always represented on my Payslips so I would see going into my bank, from my employer perhaps 7K one month and 5K the next. At one point HMRC has me registered as earning over 95K which was never the case. I Also have exercised company stock on a regular basis, paid Tax on that at point of sale and the money then again gets represented on my payslip.

My point here is that I could not reasonably be expected to see a differential on my net pay when all this was wrapped up in one figure to my eyes. As well as that, I was employed by one company that got acquired by another and the benefits changed as did my Gross Salary. All in all a bit of a spiders web to understand, my finances have been looked at by a TAX Solicitor who said it's very complex for him to understand which code I should have been on or how I could reasonably have been expected to know or notice. His take was that at best I could maybe have figured out the code was wrong, figuring out the right code being a different matter. His advice was to start the dispute as a first port of call.

Not at any point am I disputing the fact I have not paid enough Tax. I am arguing how I am supposed to validate my Tax without being an expert, when the experts are having trouble doing so.

I am born and bred in the UK and have always been a UK PAYE employee and have always provided the P45 from company to company. With work I travel a lot so have been in the US for a while, but still paying Tax in the UK and am back now, sorry for the confusion there.

I am not going to carry on writing in here because I feel I have caused too much confusion and taken up too much of your time, I really do thank you all for your help, it's been great.

Gordon.

zzzLazyDaisy

Gordon_hutton wrote: »

There is a huge difference between 20% and 40% I agree.

What I find annoying about people like you elmerfudd is that you don't think I am still reading these messages. My name is Gordon.

I was not paying 20% and it is not as simple as you may be.

I get a salary, I get expenses, I get bonuses and I get benefits such as car, health, stock plan and dividend directly from company and a few other things too. None of it is as grand as it may sound.

Maybe you are a genius and I am an idiot but you are missing the point here. It is one of liability and expectation. Now even though I appreciate all comments on here yours is nothing but an attempt to belittle someone who obviously knows less than you.

Well done you.....you are amazing.

Gordon (AKA the OP)

OP I haven't read the whole of this thread so apologies if I have got something wrong...

If things are still the same as when I was a higher rate tax payer (admittedly some years ago) employees on the higher rate of tax must also complete a self assessment form at the end of the tax year - this is because you may have savings/investments/other income etc that are only taxed at 20% for which extra tax may be payable. You say that you thought you could assume that everything was being taken care of by PAYE but that is never the case for a higher rate tax payer. Further, if you fail to complete and return the self assessment form, HMRC fine you £100 every month until you do comply with the requirements.

If you had done that, the shortfall should have been picked up immediately and you would have been given the option to spread the tax owed across the following years earnings by way of an adjusted tax code.

So from what you say, I wonder if you did in fact complete a self assessment form, and whether at least some of the figure you are quoting includes fines for non-compliance?

Gordon_hutton

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

So from what you say, I wonder if you did in fact complete a self assessment form, and whether at least some of the figure you are quoting includes fines for non-compliance?

Hi there, this is my argument back to HMRC. You don't actually HAVE to file a Tax return but doing so would have saved me, and all the others like me this problem. There are no fines or anything. Their advice is to fill in a Tax return and I will always do this from now on.

The bigger issue being that by their own admission, there are 1000's of PAYE High rate earners, ignorant of Tax like me, who through no fault of their own don't pay enough Tax and never get found out. This is a statement from HMRC...thats Millions out of the treasuries pockets.

I got a cheque from HMRC this morning for £138.47 no accompanying letter or anything, just a cheque. So I owe them over 11K and they send me a cheque?

I salute their competence.

Gordon.

jem16

Gordon_hutton wrote: »

Hi there, this is my argument back to HMRC. You don't actually HAVE to file a Tax return but doing so would have saved me, and all the others like me this problem.

As you say, just being a higher rate taxpayer, doesn't now mean that you have to complete a tax return. Only if you meet certain criteria is it necessary.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/need-tax-return.htm

I was asked to complete a tax return 10 years ago as I had more than one source of income. Nowadays i probably don't have to but choose to continue doing so as it keeps my tax correct.

Hopefully you will get this orted out but it pays to be vigilant yourself.

Gordon_hutton

jem16 wrote: »

Hopefully you will get this orted out but it pays to be vigilant yourself.

Thanks Jem16, you are absolutely right about being vigilant. I wasn't and here I am.

I will always do a Tax return from now on thats for sure, regardless of the outcome of all this. And will be suggesting to all my friends and colleagues that they should do the same.

Death and Taxes and all that good stuff.

Gordon.

jem16

Gordon_hutton wrote: »

I will always do a Tax return from now on thats for sure, regardless of the outcome of all this. And will be suggesting to all my friends and colleagues that they should do the same.

Many will say never to get onto SA but I don't find it a chore to complete online. It's usually done within 15 minutes as I keep a spreadsheet throughout the year with all the figures.

Gordon_hutton

Absolutely.....It's not hard at all.

To add insult to myself here....I have been doing my Mums tax returns for a while now and it's very easy online.

jem16

Gordon_hutton wrote: »

To add insult to myself here....I have been doing my Mums tax returns for a while now and it's very easy online.

Oops

No reason for you not to then.