Want to claim Extra Statutory Concession A19 - who is at fault?

vwaltham

I received a letter from HMRC stating that I owe £191.80 from tax year 16/17. I received a rebate for that year which now turns out was given in error. I was not the only employee to receive a letter which prompted my employer to issue this statement:

“We have been made aware that some staff have received a letter from HMRC about underpaid tax from a number of prior years, usually 2016/2017, but 2015/2016 and / or 2017/2018 may also be affected.
This adjustment has become necessary because HMRC appear to have disregarded Month 12 (March) earnings for the year in question, when checking the PAYE income tax that employees have been deducted.

As a result, some staff have received a refund that was not appropriate, either as a cheque or as an adjustment through a PAYE Coding Notice. This could have been some time ago, and HMRC are now in the process of correcting this error by reclaiming these inappropriate refunds.

The HMRC letter refers to the “Tax already paid to you for the year”, and indicates the value of the rebate that was issued at some point in the past.

The repayment required by HMRC seems to be broadly equal to the value of the refund received.

Please be reassured that we and our payroll agency, SBS, are using the mandated NHS payroll system to process staff salaries and wages. The Trust and SBS are subject to independent audit and HMRC compliance visits to ensure that the calculation, reporting and payment of statutory deductions are undertaken in an accurate and timely manner.

If you don’t recall receiving the tax rebate that HMRC refer to, you will need to query this directly with HMRC using the contact details on the letter.”

I then checked my online HMRC personal tax portal and for that year at the bottom it states:

“(Employer) has made some changes to the information they first gave us”

“On 30/01/2019 we were told that your taxable income was £1831 more”

I would like to make a claim under Extra Statutory Concession (ESC) A19 but I am unsure how to word the letter as both my employer and HMRC seem to be blaming each other and absolving themselves of any blame.

Thanks in advance

Dazed_and_confused

This adjustment has become necessary because HMRC appear to have disregarded Month 12 (March) earnings for the year in question, when checking the PAYE income tax that employees have been deducted

“(Employer) has made some changes to the information they first gave us”

“On 30/01/2019 we were told that your taxable income was £1831 more”

A few things spring to mind. What happened when you originally received the refund. Who did you query or with at the time?

The two statements copied seem to contradict themselves. If HMRC have disregarded some of your income that they knew about then why has it been necessary for your employer to notify HMRC that you received £1,831 more?

Was £1,831 your March 2017 taxable pay by any chance?

Have you read ESC A19?

HMRC appear to have written to you within a month of receiving the information from your employer so that may be an issue, from your perspective, timescale wise.

And there is (or used to be anyway) a reasonable belief part you have to meet.

Ultimately it seems as though you have received an interest free loan from HMRC.

Something somewhere has gone wrong and I can understand it must annoying to have to pay the refund back but I'm not sure you have a claim under ESC A19.

vwaltham

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

A few things spring to mind. What happened when you originally received the refund. Who did you query or with at the time?

The two statements copied seem to contradict themselves. If HMRC have disregarded some of your income that they knew about then why has it been necessary for your employer to notify HMRC that you received £1,831 more?

Was £1,831 your March 2017 taxable pay by any chance?

Have you read ESC A19?

HMRC appear to have written to you within a month of receiving the information from your employer so that may be an issue, from your perspective, timescale wise.

And there is (or used to be anyway) a reasonable belief part you have to meet.

Ultimately it seems as though you have received an interest free loan from HMRC.

Something somewhere has gone wrong and I can understand it must annoying to have to pay the refund back but I'm not sure you have a claim under ESC A19.

Thanks for your reply - I’ve checked my payslip and that isn’t my taxable pay for March - I have no idea where that figure has come from. I often get rebates as my wages fluctuate month to month.

Yes I have read it and it does state that if error was on the employers side then they are liable to pay the tax - at least that’s what I infer from it:
gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye95011

gt94sss2

Have you compared the figures in your P60 for that year with your March 17 payslip? They should be the same.

Also, if you take your February 17 payslip and add the amount paid in March, that should also add up to the P60.