P800 underpaid tax letter employers fault?

Needhelpplease

Hello,

Wondering if someone could offer advice.
I recently received a tax calculation letter from hmrc informing me that I underpaid tax for the tax year 2010/2011. The reason they state is I had two employers at the same time and both employers were applying a Paye code giving me the full tax allowances therefore I received more allowances than were due.

In January of 2011 I was employed at a company via an agency, in this month the company took me onto their payroll permanently and I left the agencies employment.

Unfortunately due to the length of time lapsed I cannot remember the circumstances surrounding P45/46's and what went on. I assumed the agency and my company dealt with this as this was my experience with previous agency/employee transitions.

My tax code for this year will now be adjusted due to this error, and I have to pay them back a sum of money underpaid.

Can anyone offer advice on who's shoulders does the blame lie? Could it have been an error on the part of my agency failing to supply documentation they should have at the time they should have or did my employer fail to supply hmrc with correct info at the time they received it? Could it be that they have never received a P45 for me? Would they not have had to inform me of this? I've read on forums that Hmrc have to collect any owed amounts within a certain timeframe - would this apply in my circumstances?

I have gone from agency employment onto a companies payroll in the past and have never experienced this.

Also - the reason for receiving this notification now that dates back 2+ years, could it be something that the tax office have either only been informed of now or have they only just worked this out?

Sorry for the length of this, wanted to provide as much info as possible.

Dazed_and_confused

Needhelpplease wrote: »

Hello,

Wondering if someone could offer advice.
I recently received a tax calculation letter from hmrc informing me that I underpaid tax for the tax year 2010/2011. The reason they state is I had two employers at the same time and both employers were applying a Paye code giving me the full tax allowances therefore I received more allowances than were due.

In January of 2011 I was employed at a company via an agency, in this month the company took me onto their payroll permanently and I left the agencies employment.

Unfortunately due to the length of time lapsed I cannot remember the circumstances surrounding P45/46's and what went on. I assumed the agency and my company dealt with this as this was my experience with previous agency/employee transitions.

My tax code for this year will now be adjusted due to this error, and I have to pay them back a sum of money underpaid.

Can anyone offer advice on who's shoulders does the blame lie? Could it have been an error on the part of my agency failing to supply documentation they should have at the time they should have or did my employer fail to supply hmrc with correct info at the time they received it? Could it be that they have never received a P45 for me? Would they not have had to inform me of this? I've read on forums that Hmrc have to collect any owed amounts within a certain timeframe - would this apply in my circumstances?

I have gone from agency employment onto a companies payroll in the past and have never experienced this.

Also - the reason for receiving this notification now that dates back 2+ years, could it be something that the tax office have either only been informed of now or have they only just worked this out?

Sorry for the length of this, wanted to provide as much info as possible.

Without specific information about what happened with your wages/salary back in January 2011 I doubt anyone would be able to help much, even if you posted this on the Cutting Tax board.

If you had the payslips it would be possible to check if you had in fact received some of your tax allowances twice. It is quite likely neither employer was at fault and you don't necessarily have to be working at both companies at the same time.

It could simply be a timing issue created by the change in your circumstances i.e you work for company one until mid January and they pay you at the end of January. You start with company two in mid January and they also pay you at the end of January using the emergency tax code - in this situation you would have received two lots of tax allowances in January and would be underpaid.

Are you able to explain what "error" you think has occurred?

Jules2012

I had the same thing happen for the same year as my previous job end date and start date of new job overlapped.

At the end of the day if you underpaid you underpaid and HMRC are taking money owed, unless you can verify you didn't underpay.

chrisbur

Needhelpplease wrote: »

Unfortunately due to the length of time lapsed I cannot remember the circumstances surrounding P45/46's and what went on.

This is the information that is needed to know what happened and whose fault if anyones it was. Do you not at least still have part 1A of the P45? Also the amount of tax owing might help.

AnitaPotter

what i don't understand is why HM Revenue don't listen to you when you tell them that you have not been working at a particular place and that i only work part-time on min wage. I'm having very similar problems to NeedHelpPlease.
I'm thinking of going through every payslip i've had from my employer during that particular tax year, add it up and see for myself if i have actually underpaid or not. I use to think i have overpaid income tax and yet HMRevenue think i have underpaid it. They think i have been earning £30k a year when i am actually on min wage. I really don't even believe that i have received 'double' personal tax-free allowance because i know i have paid tax!
If HMRevenue don't believe me then i am seriously considering of showing all my pay slips during that tax year