New job and salary / tax issues

matthew26

Hello,

I began a new post in September 2024 having left my previous post at a different organisation in August 2024. My old and new post are in universities and my new post provided the same salary as my old.

In my new post I was instructed to complete a new starter form and provide my bank details for salary payment. I was advised that I had done this on time and I would meet the pay run deadline. On pay day (September 28th 2024) I was not paid. HR and Payroll said that this was a mistake on their part and organised a CHAPS payment for the following day.

In October 2024, I was paid on time via BACS, but I was deducted a huge amount of tax as HR said that due to the CHAPS payment in the previous month, my October salary would look like I had been paid twice and therefore tax was deducted at 40%. Obviously, I was not paid twice. My net pay was approximately £700 less than what I usually receive. HR/Payroll were sympathetic but said this was now an HMRC issue. This caused a lot of financial difficulty.

From November 2024 onwards I have received the correct net salary. October 2024 stands out as in September 2024 and November 2024 onwards I have received the correct salaries.

It appears that I am due approximately £700 but HMRC did not provide me with a refund in April 2025, and my employer repeatedly state that this is not their issue. I have tried to flag again with HMRC but as they say a refund is not due, I should take this up with my employer.

P45s and P60s have been issued on time by past and current employers.

What am I missing here (aside from £700!)?

Grateful for your advice,

Matthew

Exodi

Have you registered for a personal tax account?

I would really get into the detail of this to understand what has happened - the income over the tax year, tax paid, etc.

If HMRC is stating that a refund is not due (or more succinctly, that you paid the right amount of tax), is it possible that your tax was reduced from November onwards to counter-balance the 'double' payment?

Unfortunately this is only something that can answered with all the numbers in front of you.

Payroll is right in the sense that they can't just take tax back from HMRC.

molerat

On the face of it you were not paid through payroll in Sept but received a cash advance in lieu of wages which may or may not have been the correct amount. Then in October you were paid Sept and Oct pay together, which would likely result in a large tax deduction, less the advance. As long as the tax code used was cumulative, no X / W1 / M1 suffix, and the P45 amounts were carried forward the tax should have been correct by end of year.

chrisbur

Can you give the end of year figures from your P60. Gross, tax and tax code.

What was the date of your last payment from old employer and what would have been your first payment from new employer had it been paid correctly. It is possible that these two pay dates fell in the same tax month, which would have resulted in what you have described in your post.

penners324

It's very likely the tax corrected itself.

Though end of year figures are needed to confirm this.

Or put them through a tax calculator yourself

chrisbur

The only way I can see that something like this can happen is if both the old employer and the new employer both made a payment for month 6. There are limited details but the OP advises that the salary for both jobs were the same, they believed that their net pay was about £700 down, they could not see that the £700 was refunded, and HMRC advise no refund is due. I have assumed the standard tax code, that the difference all lies in the tax deducted and that the NI was correctly calculated.

To get a difference like this would require a salary that was under the 40% tax band but went over that level if a total of 13 payments were made in the tax year; as would be the case if both employers made a payment for month 6.

I used the figure of £47700 a year (£3975 a month) Some figures are rounded.

This would give at month 6 £23850 gross to date and £3512 tax paid.

If new employer then paid £7950 in month 7 the tax would be £1874. Had the old employer not used week 6 allowances then the tax figure would have been £1171 reducing the net pay by about £700.

There would have been a small reduction in tax for each month after that which would have added up to a reduction of about £200 by the year end and the £500 would be the extra tax due to going into the 40% tax bracket.