Asda tax issues

jem16

scuddy wrote: »

Ultimately there was no communication from the company to the workers. None whatsoever. No letter, no leaflet, no note, memo or phone call, nothing to anyone.

That should not have happened I agree.

Employees of HMRC at the Leeds tax office, in Lisbon Street, are telling colleagues that the company is at fault in how it has dealt with it.

Anyone saying that obviously doesn't have a clue how PAYE works.

I would have been happier if I had paid the correct amount of tax this year. They must have known there were going to be 14 pay periods throughout last year, and should have adjusted the tax paid accordingly. In my view that would have been the correct way to do it.

That would have been one way of doing it but unfortunately the tax tables that the employer follows don't allow for it and the company cannot just make up their own way. They must follow HMRC's guidelines when operating PAYE.

The end result is the same though. If they could do 14 pay periods, your pay would have been £126 short last year. The way it's been done, it will be coded out for next tax year to collect an extra £126.

160,000 letters being sent to the taxman in Leeds is going to cause one hell of a backlog.............

I suspect that as many employees would have complained if last year's pay was short each month from what they normally got.

Walesbloke

I see people saying that asda emplyees are not out of pocket as they didnt pay the correct amount in the first place. Asda are in charge of sorting peoples tax,the employees would not know that there had been an issue so would take the amount they have in their bank account as correct, if employees had known in advance they may have put money aside to pay it. I work for asda and the first thing we knew about it was when the letter arrived from hmcr. Asda have not said a word about what has happend and why,leaving everybody confused and in the dark.Just a simple acknowledgement of the issue would be a start.

craigfunkulus

Asda worker here.

Does the 14 payment schedule include our bonus? What I'm thinking is we get a bonus halfway between our February and March payment, so we get paid 3 times in four weeks.

If that is the case the bonus I received was taxed, then the bit I got to keep was around £150, which HMRC are now taxing back off me next year. I would have been better to not get any bonus and stay in a lower tax bracket.

Am I wrong?

Cycrow

are HMRC actually asking for the money upfront ?
usually they just adjust the tax code for the following year to get the money back.

so the tax you will pay will increase by about £10 a month. And given the increase in tax code you will still end up with more money to take home that you previously did.

last year i underpaid tax (althou different circumstances) and just had my tax code adjusted. But it still ended up higher than it was the previous year so i never really noticed it

craigfunkulus

No they're not asking for it up front, at least not in my case, my tax code is being adjusted.

To be honest it doesn't bother me because I would have had to pay it anyway, nobody likes paying tax, but it's the fact that Asda didn't tell me what they were doing, or that it would be happening that's annoying.
The "we're a big company we can do what we want, and there's noting you can do about it" attitude sucks.

chrisbur

craigfunkulus wrote: »

Asda worker here.

Does the 14 payment schedule include our bonus? What I'm thinking is we get a bonus halfway between our February and March payment, so we get paid 3 times in four weeks.

If that is the case the bonus I received was taxed, then the bit I got to keep was around £150, which HMRC are now taxing back off me next year. I would have been better to not get any bonus and stay in a lower tax bracket.

Am I wrong?

Whether you had the bonus or not would have made no difference. This was caused by the extra tax free allowance that you were given for the 14th pay period. You are now having to pay the tax on that extra tax free allowance.

scuddy

GMB members who work for Asda should now contact their shop steward / union representative for assistance with this.

To All ASDA Colleagues,

The GMB has been informed that numerous colleagues have received a tax demand from the HMRC.

The GMB is aware that this tax demand could cause hardship for some colleagues.
Officers from the GMB have been in contact with ASDA. ASDA have stated that any colleague who is having difficulty paying this tax demand can be given assistance to pay in installments.

GMB members please contact your GMB Union Representative as soon as possible for assistance.

As a note aside, the tax code is going up next year, it's a a real shame that colleagues won't get the full benefit of it, when they should do.

LittleVoice

scuddy wrote: »

GMB members who work for Asda should now contact their shop steward / union representative for assistance with this.

To All ASDA Colleagues,

The GMB has been informed that numerous colleagues have received a tax demand from the HMRC.

The GMB is aware that this tax demand could cause hardship for some colleagues.
Officers from the GMB have been in contact with ASDA. ASDA have stated that any colleague who is having difficulty paying this tax demand can be given assistance to pay in installments.

GMB members please contact your GMB Union Representative as soon as possible for assistance.

As a note aside, the tax code is going up next year, it's a a real shame that colleagues won't get the full benefit of it, when they should do.

Tax-free allowance went up THIS year and "colleagues" are getting the full benefit of that.

What they got LAST year was a tax-free allowance for one payment when they weren't entitled to it.

jem16

scuddy wrote: »

As a note aside, the tax code is going up next year, it's a a real shame that colleagues won't get the full benefit of it, when they should do.

So do you think that ASDA workers should all get the benefit of an extra allowance that they were not entitled to?

Perhaps the GMB should campaign for monthly pay for all 4 week paid employees? That would stop this from ever happening again.

caseymay

My daughter has been asked to send a cheque for the amount in full by 3rd August - was not offered option to have tax code restricted next year and so pay it off in instalments which would make more sense.

She is a member of the GMB and will contacting them.