Employer error?

steevi

Hi all,

I've recently received a P800 saying I owe over £800 of underpaid tax.

I moved jobs in July last year.
I've checked through my payslips and P60 and spoken to my previous employers. It seems that they took tax from me correctly, and then failed to make me a leaver when I left in July. They didn't make me a leaver or issue a P45 until January. In the interim, they paid me over three months all the tax I had originally paid.

Upon starting my new job in August, it appears I didn't pay any tax for several months - the first time I paid any tax was January, although my tax code has always been the same. I filled in a P46 when I started due to not having a P45.

I'm not disputing that I have underpaid tax, that much is clearly evident. However, I'm wondering if I can try to go down the employer error route at my previous job? I have no idea why they failed to make me a leaver until 6 months after I was gone?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lokolo

I think the problem is more likely with the new employer (although the old employer still should have issued a P45 straight away). If you had filled in the P46 correctly and ticked box B, without a P45 I think you would automatically go on BR code, not be given a new tax code the same as before.

You would have then started paying tax straight away (as you would have no personal allowance). There would still be a slight difference in tax paid and how much you were meant to have, but it would have been insignificant.

edit - actually having read the employer manual, it seems you would have been on Month1/Week1, not actually sure what that means, wait for someone else to confirm although I am surprised that HMRC put you onto that code if you fill in a P46 and say you have already had a job.

edit2 - can you give us your tax codes for the new job which appear on your payslip?

CLAPTON

steevi wrote: »

Hi all,

I've recently received a P800 saying I owe over £800 of underpaid tax.

I moved jobs in July last year.
I've checked through my payslips and P60 and spoken to my previous employers. It seems that they took tax from me correctly, and then failed to make me a leaver when I left in July. They didn't make me a leaver or issue a P45 until January. In the interim, they paid me over three months all the tax I had originally paid.

Upon starting my new job in August, it appears I didn't pay any tax for several months - the first time I paid any tax was January, although my tax code has always been the same. I filled in a P46 when I started due to not having a P45.

I'm not disputing that I have underpaid tax, that much is clearly evident. However, I'm wondering if I can try to go down the employer error route at my previous job? I have no idea why they failed to make me a leaver until 6 months after I was gone?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

did you not notice that you were still receiving money from your old employer for 3 months?

when you received the P45 what did you do with it?

Lokolo

CLAPTON wrote: »

did you not notice that you were still receiving money from your old employer for 3 months?

when you received the P45 what did you do with it?

Oh apologies, I completely misread the OPs post, didn't realise he was still being paid after leaving.

CLAPTON

Lokolo wrote: »

I think the problem is more likely with the new employer (although the old employer still should have issued a P45 straight away). If you had filled in the P46 correctly and ticked box B, without a P45 I think you would automatically go on BR code, not be given a new tax code the same as before.

You would have then started paying tax straight away (as you would have no personal allowance). There would still be a slight difference in tax paid and how much you were meant to have, but it would have been insignificant.

edit - actually having read the employer manual, it seems you would have been on Month1/Week1, not actually sure what that means, wait for someone else to confirm although I am surprised that HMRC put you onto that code if you fill in a P46 and say you have already had a job.

edit2 - can you give us your tax codes for the new job which appear on your payslip?

a BR code is only used if the employee has two jobs simultaneously and the tax allowance is being use by the first job

it is not used if you simply change from one job to another otherwise you are taxed too highly as you receive no tax fee allowance

a month1 /week 1 code means you do recieve a tax free allowance based on say 1/12 (for monthly paid) of the tax allowance : however it does not take into a/c one's income history from 6th April

without knowing how the OP filled in the P46 it's difficult to take a view on what happened exactly

steevi

CLAPTON wrote: »

did you not notice that you were still receiving money from your old employer for 3 months?

when you received the P45 what did you do with it?

I did notice, but assumed the first one was for the "leftover" bit of month and the rest were accrued holiday or some other palava. I did email them about it, twice, but never received a response - trying to find contact details for Payroll was a nightmare.

I don't recall ever actually receiving a P45 from them - they just told me when it was issued when I spoke to them yesterday.

My tax code at my old job was 810L, and in current job is 944L.

Thanks.

StuC75

Op has benefitted from getting the tax back (by way of payments from previous employer after they left).. Then didnt pay when started with there New Job..

I assume they were completely aware of this as it happened and thought not to question it at the time?

Regardless of who made the Error, you were still the beneficiary of it - so looks like you need to stump it up...

CLAPTON

steevi wrote: »

I did notice, but assumed the first one was for the "leftover" bit of month and the rest were accrued holiday or some other palava. I did email them about it, twice, but never received a response - trying to find contact details for Payroll was a nightmare.

I don't recall ever actually receiving a P45 from them - they just told me when it was issued when I spoke to them yesterday.

My tax code at my old job was 810L, and in current job is 944L.

Thanks.

what was the tax code on the new job when you started in August?
what was the tax code on your new job on the P60 at year end?

steevi

CLAPTON wrote: »

what was the tax code on the new job when you started in August?
what was the tax code on your new job on the P60 at year end?

It's always been 810L.