Employer messed up my income tax

chalky2011

Hi , I am looking for some advice re my tax. I received a letter from HMRC yesterday telling me I had underpaid tax since 2012 due to my employer not using the correct tax codes. I was totally oblivious to this as the tax was deducted from my monthly salary but it seems my tax code has changed a number of times during this period and my employer was not updating it correctly. When I asked why I had not been sent notice of these code changes they HMRC said they had been sending letters. I honestly never received any but now I am wondering if HMRC have not been sending these code changes to either me or my employer. I have asked them to email me dates and details of tax code changes and I am going to take this up with my employer. I know the tax liability lies with me but is there any way I can ask my employer to contribute as the mistakes seem to be down to them. The due is nearly£ 9000 I receive medical and company car BIK and this seems to have caused the problem as my employer has been messing up my P11 D information. I am really raging with my employer and I want to take them to task about this tomorrow. Can any one advise on best way to proceed?
Thanks in advance

PM

Pennywise

Realistically, even it's employer error, the best you can hope for is that they give you a loan to pay the tax and then repay it via your future wages over a number of months/years.

At the end of the day, the tax is due. If the tax code had been right, then you'd have paid the money in the past. So you're no worse off now than you would have been.

As to not receiving tax code notices, did you tell HMRC when you last moved? This is a common theme of HMRC sending letters etc to a previous address simply because they didn't know you'd moved. They're not mind-readers. Obviously, not the case if you've not moved in the last few years, but it is one of the most common reasons.

mwarby

Saying that how many people understand their PAYE tax well enough to spot errors, and would have £9k available to sort out tax mistakes.

I for one budget based on my income and expect my take home pay to be all mine, I would struggle if the taxman wrote to me saying actually you owe use money

Thrugelmir

chalky2011 wrote: »

The due is nearly£ 9000 I receive medical and company car BIK and this seems to have caused the problem as my employer has been messing up my P11 D information.

Has your not been declaring your P11d benefit in kind. Have you received copies of the forms for every tax year?

chalky2011

Pennywise wrote: »

Realistically, even it's employer error, the best you can hope for is that they give you a loan to pay the tax and then repay it via your future wages over a number of months/years.

At the end of the day, the tax is due. If the tax code had been right, then you'd have paid the money in the past. So you're no worse off now than you would have been.

As to not receiving tax code notices, did you tell HMRC when you last moved? This is a common theme of HMRC sending letters etc to a previous address simply because they didn't know you'd moved. They're not mind-readers. Obviously, not the case if you've not moved in the last few years, but it is one of the most common reasons.

I have not moved house in the past 11 years and HMRC say also sent out a P800 in February which I also never received if I had I would have contacted them at that point as I say I realise the liability is mine but the mistakes are my employers that's the galling thing.

chalky2011

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Has your not been declaring your P11d benefit in kind. Have you received copies of the forms for every tax year?

This is one of the reasons I think this has come about, my employer has given me copies of P11D but I have not had last year's yet but speaking to HMRC yesterday the tell me my employer submitted the form to them telling them I only had BIK for one day for my car!!

I am now wondering how many other mistakes they have made with not only my tax but the rest of my company if HMRC take a look at theirs there might very well be lots of unhappy people who owe a lot of money and don't realise it.

The department in question have previously paid a member of staff the car allowance for four years while they had a company car !

booksurr

OK so there seems to be some substance to your payroll dept having a history of "errors"

have a read of this and see if you can build a case that, in your current case, they are liable
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/366615/employer-errors-deduction-paye.pdf

xylophone

I received a letter from HMRC yesterday

I have not moved house in the past 11 years and HMRC say also sent out a P800 in February which I also never received

Very odd!

I had underpaid tax since 2012 due to my employer not using the correct tax codes. I was totally oblivious to this as the tax was deducted from my monthly salary but it seems my tax code has changed a number of times during this period and my employer was not updating it correctly.

You receive monthly salary advice chit/P60s?
There have been no changes of tax codes on these?

What changed in 2012? Had you been in self assessment up to that time but HMRC advised you that you no longer had to self assess?

chalky2011

booksurr wrote: »

OK so there seems to be some substance to your payroll dept having a history of "errors"

have a read of this and see if you can build a case that, in your current case, they are liable
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/366615/employer-errors-deduction-paye.pdf

This is exactly what I am looking for as I said this tax code error seems to have happened on at least 6 occasions over the past 4 tax periods if HMRC can prove they sent notifications for these code changes to my employer and my payroll didn't implement these changes correctly then I will be telling them these errors were not made "in good faith" but as a result of incompetance. Thanks for your help.

chalky2011

xylophone wrote: »

Very odd!



You receive monthly salary advice chit/P60s?
There have been no changes of tax codes on these?

What changed in 2012? Had you been in self assessment up to that time but HMRC advised you that you no longer had to self assess?

There have been changes at times to my tax codes on my monthly pay slip I think the major error has been the final tax code for example I have one payslip showing tax code 38t but my final tax code on my P60 for that year was 779L I didn't even notice this until checking back through payslips and P60s yesterday. I had the advantage that my employer emails monthly payslips and P60s so it was relatively easy to check back. The only thing that changed in 2012 is that I was promoted but I was still PAYE beforehand.
I definitely think there is something not right in my payroll dept. and I don't envisage being the only person they have made these errors with.

xylophone

for example I have one payslip showing tax code 38t

This indicates that there are items requiring review by HMRC.

If you examine all your chits for the past four tax years, does a T code appear frequently?

I didn't even notice this until checking back through payslips and P60s yesterday.

The responsibility for checking that you have paid the correct amount of tax does rest with you - did you not notice unexpected fluctuations in your salary?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2174956/Taxman-set-make-YOU-responsible-checking-tax-code-leaving-risk-shock-bills.html