Asda tax issues

squidgysponge

Its the same lack of communication with employees that Asda colleagues have grown accustomed to over the years I've been with them. Its the same at all stores across the country. It's like the management can't help but do they're utmost to put on a "we're really interested in doing anything we can for colleagues, because it looks good on paper, but really going to not doing anything and ignore you anyway because we don't give two hoots" mentality.

Same discussion here guys...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4702745

jem16

scuddy wrote: »

I'm not saying we don't owe the money. I am saying "WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO OWE THE MONEY".

If your first payslip of 2012/13 was £10 less because of the extra tax that you propose should have been taken, do you think you would have happily accepted it?

Walesbloke wrote: »

I think one of the main issues for people is not whos got it right or wrong,its the fact that asda deal with tax for their employees but have failed to communicte with us about whats happening. In our store, most of us got our hmcr letters on friday and we have had no answers from asda at all.not even a memo to a manager or an email.

I totally agree and would be rightly annoyed. No-one is disputing that.

Show us the facts and at least we'd be able to make an educated decision on whos right instead of having to turn to forums to piece together an answer.

Many on this thread and the thread in Cutting Tax have tried to explain the facts, including posting the actual HMRC guideline. Unfortunately it seems that you are not listening and still think Asda has done it wrongly.

Asda should have informed its employees - of that there is no doubt. However the fact still remains that as far as the tax is concerned they have done nothing wrong and the tax is owed. In most cases they have been given 2 years to pay it back over monthly instalments.

dori2o

jem16 wrote: »

Asda should have informed its employees - of that there is no doubt. However the fact still remains that as far as the tax is concerned they have done nothing wrong and the tax is owed. In most cases they have been given 2 years to pay it back over monthly instalments.

Correct, and the key word there is 'should' as highlighted above.

There is no requirement for the employer to notify any employee, the guidelines merely say they 'should' inform, not they MUST inform.

Asda employees are not the only ones affected by this, essentially anyone paid 4 weekly and had a pay day on 5th April is going to be affected. i've dealt with numerous calls on the subject.

The GMB is on a hiding to nothing with it's Memo released.

I don't see how they are going to be able to help people get the cost of this spread over time in cases where the underpayment cannot be collected via the code, unless they are going to pay it and then allow the person to pay the GMB back in installments.

Anyone who has an income of more than £10630 in 2014/15 (assuming the Chancellor does increase the allowance to £10k) will be able to have their underpayment collected via the code (assuming the underpayment is approx £126). If your income is higher than this but you have been asked to pay in full then contact HMRC to update your estimated income details, and request the amount be coded

If you cannot have the underpayment collected via the code then you can contact HMRC who will arrange for the underpayment to be collected over a period of up to 3 years.

Essentially what you need to know is this.

Asda have operated PAYE correctly. There is no hope of successfully claiming employer error in this case, they did not have requirement to tell their employees, but they could have saved a lot of stress etc by providing this information to you.. HMRC have operated correctly, there is no hope of claiming Revenue Error (ESC A19) in this case. There is nothing you could have done to prevent being underpaid, it's simply part of the way tax works and is an unfortunate anomoly which for 4 weekly employees happens every 22 years (so I am told).

The ONLY complaint I can see, is that someone at the Leeds tax office (I'm assuming the Enquiry Centre as there is no telephone contact centre in Leeds and you cannot speak directly to the office by telephone) is giving out the wrong information. Why? I don't knowe. they may not have experienced this matter before, afterall it is not something that happens every year.

If you wish to make a complaint, then this is the complaint you should be making, That you have been given wrong information by a HMRC employee.

bri365

As an Asda employee earning below the tax allowance for this year and not paying income tax, the HMRC cannot adjust my tax code to reclaim the shortfall. I have therefore been sent another letter stating that I have until 3rd August 2013 to repay this money. In my case this is not a problem but many part time workers are struggling to find this £126.50 payment before the due date. Some have contacted HMRC to be told that they can spread the cost over three or four payments, yet others have been told they have to pay the full amount in one go. One woman in our store rang HMRC and said she couldn't afford to pay it in one go and was asked if she had a credit card she could use. Another person was on the phone to HMRC when he heard someone in the background say they had another bloody Asda call.
In fairness Asda have handled this situation badly and should have communicated with colleagues better. Not all personnel departments are the same and some have passed information on. Asda themselves do not have a wages department, they use a company called Ceridian to deal with it. Must be some sort of secret society because Asda won't give out their phone number? There are always complaints about wages being short or not being paid holiday money etc each month. Why Asda continue to use them is beyond me. If you employed someone to do a job for you and they failed to do that job correctly you wouldn't use them again.
If the HMRC knew this tax shortfall was going to happen and the proverbial !!!! would hit the fan when these letters went out, why have they not briefed their staff in how to handle and explain the situation? So many people being told so many different things all the time, would it not have been better if they had had a dedicated trained team to deal with the enquires?

What I can't get my head around is the fact that in my March 2013 pay, I received a tax rebate, now I have a letter saying I underpaid surely someone somewhere made a mistake. Also why is it that I work 20 hours a week yet owe the same amount as someone working 38+ hours a week?

surreysaver

bri365 wrote: »

Also why is it that I work 20 hours a week yet owe the same amount as someone working 38+ hours a week?

Because you must have the same tax-free allowance as the other person?

They probably wonder why your average hourly take home pay is higher than theirs?

bri365

surreysaver wrote: »

They probably wonder why your average hourly take home pay is higher than theirs?

Their take home pay is twice as much as mine.

RoverTi

I know two people that work for asda, and here is the current issue. One is being allowed to have it coded to next years tax code, the other has to pay it by 3rd of august.

Now here's the issue, No one at HMRC will talk to colleagues fromt asda has they have been told to give a stock reply of "you need to talk to ASDA payroll", they won't even allow us to discuss getting it coded for the following year.

ASDA payroll (when you get someone that don't hang up on you as soon as you mention the tax issue) are saying that they did everything HMRC asked of them and that you need to talk to HMRC.

So given that there are only 3 weeks ish to make the payment that HMRC requires, and the fact that HMRC are passing the buck to ASDA and not allowing their staff to talk about it, and the fact that ASDA have done everything HMRC have asked, Where do we stand on trying to get the payment sorted, ideally spread over the year through the tax code.

chrisbur

bri365 wrote: »

What I can't get my head around is the fact that in my March 2013 pay, I received a tax rebate, now I have a letter saying I underpaid surely someone somewhere made a mistake. Also why is it that I work 20 hours a week yet owe the same amount as someone working 38+ hours a week?

To see exactly what is happening here you would need to give full figures as from what you say if you were "earning below the tax allowance for this year" it seems strange that you would have made full use of the week 56 tax allowance though I assume your earnings must have been higher earlier in the year as you got a tax rebate. To see what is happening can you give from the last three payslips of last year the gross, tax, tax code, tax basis (usually shown after the tax code) the gross to date and the tax paid to date.

dori2o

bri365 wrote: »

Their take home pay is twice as much as mine.

It doesn't matter how much your salary is in this case, unless of course your annual salary is more than £41k.

Each 4 weekly employee who works for ASDA has been given 1/13th of the tax free allowance too much.

Thats approx £625

The basic rate of tax is 20%

20% of £625 is £125

Thats why everyones underpayment is almost the same. The remainder is explained by discrepancies with rounding up/down and the tax tables.

Those who have an income above £10631 will be able to have their underpayment coded.

Those who have an income of less than £10631 will either a) have to pay in full, or if this is not possible can contact HMRC and tell them you would like to speak to a Hardship advisor to arrange to repay the amount over a number of months. This will be either by Direct debit or via payslips.

This is not something new. This situation raises its ugly head every so often for those people paid weekly (every 5 or 6 years), those paid 2 weekly (every 11 years), and those paid 4 weekly (every 22 years).

This has been the case since PAYE was introduced in 1944.

HMRC have not been in a position to tell you about it because before the start of this tax year they did not know how frequently you are paid. Neither did they know how much you were paid each time you were paid, neither did they know how much tax you paid each time you were paid.

The new system for notifying PAYE earnings and deductions 'Real Time Information' which was introduced for the majority of employers from 6 April 2013 changes that, and now HMRC know how frequently you are paid, they know how much you have been paid, how much tax you have paid etc etc.

Asda should have warned you about it, unfortunately they didn't, but Asda have operated PAYE correctly.

If you need to resolve issues with the collection of the underpayment, then only HMRC can help. For advice on why this has happened, despite myself and other explaining it to you the best we can, then speak to Asda payroll.

caseymay

If any one can answer this I would appreciate it - can my daughter write to the tax office and request that the payment is taken out through her tax code next year (as I think - not entirely sure as the language used by hmrc is very hard to understand) as it is now to late to use the restriction to collect the underpaid tax this current tax year.

She cannot afford to pay it all up front and she does not have a credit card.