Company didnt pay me

faringdon

Hi,

Between 19 May 2025 and 29 May 2025 i worked at a company in Oxfordshire. He only wanted me to do Mechanical engineering stuff but i am electronics, so i struggled…after 2 weeks the boss went into meltdown, and so i just had to leave. I wasnt getting the mech work done that he wanted and wouldnt be able to any time soon. I told him i would just go, and that he wouldnt have to pay me anything, and that we shoudl just pretend i had never worked there.

Anyway, i have recently downloaded my Tax record from my Gov.uk website, and it shows that they obviously registered me for income tax….it says "taxable income = £875". It also says for this work that "income tax paid = £0".

So what does this mean…?..does it mean i will be taxed even though they didnt pay me a penny?

chrisbur

Your tax due will be based on total taxable income for the year, so this £875 will be included. Tax due will depend on that total taxable income. It is possible that the £875 was added into your taxable income at some point during the year or that your taxable earnings are below the point tax is due. Can only tell if you give details from your tax account for all PAYE earnings and tax paid on those earnings.

Isthisforreal99

Despite what informal agreement you said about not to bother paying you your employer has a legal obligation to pay you - you can't just 'pretend you didn't work there'.

So it sounds like they owe you the £895 they have told HMRC about.

sherlock228

presumably when starting you would have been asked to complete a starter checklist for pay purposes and either did or did not have a P45 to give them.
If you didn't then highly likely they would have put you on the "emergency" tax code (or "month 1") which gives you 1/12th of the annual personal allowance in that month.
Therefore if the gross was 875 your allowance would have been 12570/12 hence 0 tax due as your pay did not exceed the monthly "free pay" threshold

HOWEVER that 875 is recorded as part of your gross pay for that tax year and so if you earned more than 12,570 by the end of that tax year you will owe tax on that 875 whether you got the cash from the employer or not.

Morally you may consider you acted correctly, but financially they should have paid you nonetheless

Grumpy_chap

Is this one of these two companies?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6639017/dismissed-from-employment

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6635571/have-not-been-payed-for-an-electronics-engineering-contract

QrizB

Is this one of these two companies?

It does sound rather like the "dismissed from employment" thread.

faringdon

Thanks, yes, its the post from Nov 2025, i was looking for it everywhere, thanks for finding it…when i wrote that in Nov 2025, i didnt realise that Tax would be payable by me…this is very bad….i mean, i received no pay yet i am to be taxed?

Surely i must write to HMRC and tell them i received no pay?…but wouldnt they know that?…..the payslip would surely have been sent to them?

I am literally being taxed on earnings that i was never payed….surely this is not legal?

Surely i have legal redress for this?……surely they should not have payed me and i should not pay any tax?

Marcon

You need to contact your former employer and get things sorted out. Nobody here can help further - HMRC aren't going to believe you unless the employer confirms they made an error in reporting you'd been paid by them.

faringdon

Thanks…they actually recruited me through a recruitment consultancy…so i wonder if they had to pay them even though i left after 2 weeks and told them not to pay me……i certainly got an extremely angry message from the Rec agency after i'd left…..hopping mad they were…i didnt answer their calls….but their voicemail was firey!.

Grumpy_chap

You need to know who filed the payment details to HMRC. Which company was going to pay you when you had the short term role? Was it a staff position with the end Client (who would have paid you) or was it an agency / contract / Umbrella Company position where you would have been paid by the Agency or the Umbrella Company?

Whoever submitted the return to HMRC should either now pay you the money as per the payslip (best outcome for you) or should process a payslip to reverse the previously declared submission to HMRC. (Not such a good outcome for you but at least you won't be liable for tax against income not received.)

It would be extremely unlikely that HMRC simply take your word for it that you were not paid this money that the company has declared was paid.

As for your premise that "surely they should not have payed me and i should not pay any tax" - that seems to be the inverse of what it should be. Regardless of how well or badly you performed, you did do that work for the company so you should be paid and should pay the tax associated with that amount. Especially given this has been processed as "payroll" by the Client / Agency / Umbrella Company. It might be different if you were a genuine independent contractor.

faringdon

Thanks, i understood that i was being taken on as permanent, and i supposed that the company where i worked were going to pay me…..but i couldnt be totally sure as i never received any pay as i was only there from 19th May 2025 to 29th May 2025.

The two directors were in there 70's, and i am doubtful that they will reply to the email that i have just sent them to request that they tell HMRC that they didnt pay me.