Any tax whizzes? Changing jobs query

molerat

I went away and made a spreadsheet from HMRC tax tables which uses some odd "not annual divided by12" monthly figures to work with but bung the numbers in here http://payecalculator.hmrc.gov.uk/PAYE0.aspx and it will give the 2 tax figures.

auburnette

Brilliant - thanks guys - that helps make it a lot clearer.

I've stuck the excess in my instant access saver and will forget about it until next payday!

molerat

No, you have to spend it all then start another thread at the end of January complaining that you have been ripped off by your employer / the tax man / the world and can't afford to feed the cat / kids / granny, it's everyone elses fault except yours and expect sympathy

auburnette

Hello,

Thought I would update this sorry saga in case it's of use to anyone.

In Jan, despite having the correct P45 information HMRC applied the code BR - which again led to an underpayment albeit much smaller this time. Payroll only notified me 2 days before payday itself and I never got a letter of coding about the BR code so I could not fix it with them in time.

I called the tax office at Ty Glas to ask them what they are playing at and spent 90% of the call explaining to the adviser that I had underpaid for two months in a row. He was insistent for most of the call that I was actually due a refund and it wasn't until I asked him to reconcile tax to date that he realised there was "a little" underpayment (his words! The amount is around £1019 to date - surely not little unless you're a millionaire)

More out of principle than anything else I said I wasn't happy with them just adjusting the tax codes resulting in an almost instant clawback of £1000ish with no warning. He said he'd make it so I got any notice of repayment after the tax year ended so I could decide then whether to just pay up or have it recouped through the tax code system.
(This was probably a mistake on my part but it really grinds my gears that you could get this level of deduction unexpectedly with no explanation or warning!) The money has been earning interest in my savings account while they fail to sort it out...


So far, so good. Anyway, yesterday I got a notice of coding for tax year 2016/2017 saying I'd be on code D0 with a personal allowance of only £3300 ?!?! This is complete nonsense as I have only one job, have a gross salary of £66,000.

I rang them up to ask what the hell was going on as code D0 would result in a huge overpayment each month next year if applied. The guy was more helpful than the last one I spoke to but couldn't explain why that had been generated. He said he'd adjust it so I am on the normal 1110L next year. Apparently in the current tax year I have now been moved off BR and am currently on 1060L cumulative (again with no notice of coding received)- which is presumably correct but is going to result in the clawback I didn't really want as it is on a cumulative basis based on P45 info and tax to date. The adviser I spoke to previously told me this wouldn't happen. It's too late for our payroll deadlines now (was 8th Feb to be reflected in Feb pay) so basically they have told me one thing and exactly the opposite will happen.

I am really irritated about this as I don't understand why they are capable of generating occasional arbitrary letters with nonsensical tax codes yet can't send one single letter saying 'whoops, you have underpaid, here are the options for fixing it'. I also don't trust them now to correct things for next year.

I've made a subject access request under the DPA to see what information they hold and am in the process of going through the complaints procedure. If they don't resolve things to my satisfaction I will go to the tax adjudicator. Hopefully they will sort it out as all I want is a) an explanation of why this series of mistakes has been made and incorrect codes issued when they had the P45 information b) the correct tax code issuing for next year c) an apology!

getmore4less

Are you sure the employer processed the P45 on time?