Incorrect P45

Mckenna1992

Hi all, 

At the end of June I handed my resignation letter to my old employer, subsequently I was put on 3 months garden leave and a further 3 months non compete at the end of my garden leave (total 6 months). 

At the end of my garden leave, I asked my ex employer to send me my p45 as it had been a week since my contract had terminated and still no sign of my p45. After many emails back and forth I eventually received my p45… 6 weeks after my contract had ended.

When I opened the email attachment which contained my P45 I realised there were multiple errors: 

- termination date - incorrect 
- Annual total / tax paid -  incorrect 
- months worked for the company within the tax year - incorrect 
- company address - incorrect

Now, the big error is the amount of months and total paid. I had worked for the company from April- September within the tax year (6 months), however, on the P45 it says 7 months, furthermore, the total / tax reflects 7 months pay. I had only been paid for 6 months and the last payment I received was at the end of September. 

I quickly questioned my old company about this and they initially said it was fine. I semi second guessed myself, however, after reviewing it many times and realising that I wasn’t going crazy, I pushed back. They said they would look into it. 

A couple of days later I received email from them saying they would correct the figures and notify HMRC…. only if I paid them £1,500 which apparently I owe them. A little bit confused about the response, I asked them why do I owe them this money. They have not come back to my question.

Before anyone asks, I did not have anything within my contract which stated I owed them money or they were entitled to money from me if I left. The only thing I can think of is if there is an administration error from their side and it has only just come to light. 

To my question…. Is my ex employer able to put a false figure in my P45 earnings, as they have already admitted the figures they submitted are incorrect ,and are there any repercussions by them doing this?

I am thinking of asking them to send all my payslips to me for this financial year and then sending this to HMRC. Likely will be very long winded though.. 

I start my new job at the start of January and would like to have my P45 ready by then.

Thanks in advance. 

penners324

The P45 isn't really an issue. The new company will get an update from hmrc anyway after you start.

What does have to happen if being paid correctly and that being submitted to HMRC.

Do you the calculations and payslips for the notice period?

Mckenna1992

Ahh ok. I thought as HMRC have the incorrect information with regards to Total / Tax, this would be transferred to my new company, unless rectified? 

I will have to ask for my pay slips. 

Sarahspangles

Mckenna1992 said:

Ahh ok. I thought as HMRC have the incorrect information with regards to Total / Tax, this would be transferred to my new company, unless rectified? 

I will have to ask for my pay slips. 

I’d want to check what my HMRC personal tax account says. In the app/web account you can see taxable pay and tax deducted. I’d be looking for an additional pay slip - it could be they corrected an error in month 7. The payroll data in HMRC is mostly from electronic returns by employers so giving alternative figures to HMRC could cause confusion.

Savvy_Sue

Possibly they think they did pay you in month 7, so they want it back. But you say they didn't, so they'd need to give you some evidence - a line on their bank statement for example. 

Do you not have your own payslips, that you're asking them to provide them?

Mckenna1992

Unfortunately, I do not have access to the payslips due to login being linked to old company email address, however my last email I sent was asking them to provide my payslips for this year, along with asking them where £1,500 has come from… waiting to hear back. 

They have admitted and are aware that they did not pay me for 7 months despite my total figures reflecting 7 months pay and 7 months being written on my p45. £1,500 has no correlation to my monthly pay, monthly take home or monthly tax, this is why I am confused about the figure. 

Sarahspangles

Mckenna1992 said:

Unfortunately, I do not have access to the payslips due to login being linked to old company email address, however my last email I sent was asking them to provide my payslips for this year, along with asking them where £1,500 has come from… waiting to hear back. 

They have admitted and are aware that they did not pay me for 7 months despite my total figures reflecting 7 months pay and 7 months being written on my p45. £1,500 has no correlation to my monthly pay, monthly take home or monthly tax, this is why I am confused about the figure. 

Have you looked at your personal tax account to see what they have told HMRC they have paid?

Mckenna1992

I will have a look today. The P45 is 3 pages, one of which is sent to HMRC and I can see it says 7 months with the pay reflecting this so I will be surprised if my personal tax differs from this but I will check anyway 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Mckenna1992 said:

I will have a look today. The P45 is 3 pages, one of which is sent to HMRC and I can see it says 7 months with the pay reflecting this so I will be surprised if my personal tax differs from this but I will check anyway 

Employers stopped sending P45's to HMRC over 10 years ago now.

However what is printed on your copies is likely to be the same as what they submitted to HMRC under the Real Time Information system.

Mckenna1992

I have just gone to HMRC website and checked what my company has input. 

On the PAYE section it is significantly less than my salary (£12,100 less). I then checked the amount that my company submitted for each month and the first 4 months put in is align with the PAYE amount they submitted, however, the following 2 months are a lot more. 

Should the PAYE amount be your salary pay and adjusted accordingly when / if receive bonuses? 

If this is the case I sense that my ex employer has realised they have been underpaying me and tried to rectify this with the final two months of my employment. My pay is still short by £5000 despite them trying to rectify.

any suggestions what to do next? Still yet to receive payslips 

Savvy_Sue

Slightly confused here: did what you actually received in your bank align with the figures on the HMRC account? Or tally with your payslips at the time? (Please tell me you checked your payslip while you were still working there?)