Tax on live in accomodation

emmma12

Hi,
I recieved a tax underpayment letter from the HMRC a few weeks ago, telling me I had underpayed tax by nearly £1000. I phoned them and the told me it was due to tax being underpayed on an accomodation benefit from a previous live in job, over a period of 3 years.

I worked as a chef in a pub and lived above. I did not have a contract of employment or any written form of tennancy agreement. I had a verbal net pay arrangement and was always payed the same amount each week. I recieved pay slips stating that my tax and national insurance had been payed before my wage was given to me. There was no mention on the pay slips of any benefit.

Should my employer not have payed the tax on my benefits?

Can anyone help me understand if there is any way i can get out of paying this ammount of money, it does not seem fair to me? I know i should have got a contract, but is there anything i can do now?

Thanks

Caz3121

have a search on "accommodation benefit in kind"
Your accommodation will have been a benefit in kind and as such tax would be due on this probably by reducing your tax code. If the code was not reduced then this would result in an underpayment.
Did you receive a P11D from your employer showing taxable benefits?

emmma12

Hi,

Yes this is what the HMRC man told me, that they had not been informed of my benefit and my tax code had not been adjusted accordingly. They also told me 'I believe your employer operated PAYE correctly using the information they had at the time'....I dont know what that information is because my employer always knew i was living there.

I never saw any forms. I assumed that all my taxes were payed before my wage was given to me.