Employer not submitting correct earnings to HMRC

wundawoman

I have just received a tax refund letter from HMRC which has been based on incorrect earnings from my previous employer. As I was off sick for most of the tax year that I was with them, I only got paid for 1/4 of my total earnings, yet they have declared to HMRC that I had been paid almost the full amount, hence the adjustment. My total earnings last year barely came over the minimum threshold for tax and NI (no benefits were received).
I contacted HMRC and they said that my previous employer needs to make the adjustment in the system, but I know this won't happen as I've contacted my previous employer about this and they are ignoring me. I'm also still chasing them for my P45 (I also haven't received a P11D or P60 but i'm not sure if I would get those for my final year). I left in Nov 2017.

Any advice on how I can get this fixed would be greatly appreciated...

Dazed_and_confused

Firstly you need to get in clear what the different periods concerned are.

A HMRC calculation is for a tax year, guessing the one you have got is for 2017:18?

So this relates to income paid from 06:04:2017 to 05:04:2018. You can look at your personal tax account on gov.uk to see exactly what wages information your ex employer submitted to HMRC for that tax year.

You won't get a P60 for 2017:18 but if your employment definitely ended you should have had a P45. I think a P11D should have been provided as well even though you left part way through the year.

Are you able to outline what is wrong with the tax refund letter (P800 calculation?).

The only way this would be changed though is if your ex employer supplied HMRC with corrected details. Which seems unlikely to happen based on your post.

wundawoman

I was referring to the tax year in my post thanks.

Thanks for the P60/P11D info.

Details: I left the job in November but the last monthly payment I received was for July. From July to August I received no pay as I was on sick leave and they refused to pay me anything (we are still in dispute over this). The information on my P800 had a summary amount that was less than my full annual earnings, but I could not discover where the figure came from (it was more than my pay from april-nov if I HAD been paid for every month), so I looked back at my payslips. My last payslip from them says 'total taxable pay to date ~£12250' The total figure quoted on my P800 was over £30K. I have not earned anything else this tax year, nor received any benefits. The mismatch in numbers is just incredible.

Dazed_and_confused

The information on my P800 had a summary amount that was less than my full annual earnings, but I could not discover where the figure came from

This is where looking at your personal tax account can come in useful - you should be able to see what taxable wage details your employer has sent to HMRC for each payday in the 2017:18 tax year.

If they submitted information which turned out to be wrong i.e. salary details sent to HMRC for July and August which you didn't actually receive then it is actually in their own best interest to correct this as they will be due a refund of any tax/national they have had to pay over for you (for the months when no payment was actually made).

dori2o

First of all, do not cash the cheque.

If you don't have your P45 then write back to HMRC with a copy of the P800, a copy of your final payslip and return the cheque.

Explain in the letter that the final payslip you received is enclosed. Explain that if necessary you can provide evidence that no further payment from XX-NAME OF EMPLOYER-XX has been received in your bank since XX-INSERT DATE OF LAST PAYMENT-XX. Also advise that you have made the employer aware of this error and that so far they have refused to acknowledge the issue and will not be making any adjustment.

You could even mention in your letter that you would like HMRC to consider Employer Error as you believe they are acting outside of the PAYE Regulations. (Usually this only happens where you have underpaid tax and believe the employer is at fault).

HMRC should then write to the employer asking for an explanation.

If there is currently a dispute regarding outstanding monies due you could also mention this but don't go into too much detail to avoid confusing the issue.