Thread: TAX OFFICE INCOMPETENCE

Just had a notice from the TAX man saying i have underpaid by approximately £2,000.00 for the last year and the same for year ending April 2010.

All together I apparently owe them £4,311.20. How the hell can this be my fault if I am PAYE?????

I have a main job and a part time job, all my income has been declared properly but they are saying (i think) it's to do with how much i have paid on the 40% bracket. Surely that's worked out by them???

Anyone else had similar problems? any ideas?

Originally Posted by Beardo

Just had a notice from the TAX man saying i have underpaid by approximately £2,000.00 for the last year and the same for year ending April 2010.

All together I apparently owe them £4,311.20. How the hell can this be my fault if I am PAYE?????

I have a main job and a part time job, all my income has been declared properly but they are saying (i think) it's to do with how much i have paid on the 40% bracket. Surely that's worked out by them???

Anyone else had similar problems? any ideas?

I believe about two million others may have had similar problems, if the news reports back in the Autumn were anything to go by.

GGGGGrrrrrrr don't really watch the news or read the papers (tooo depressing) I'll google it. cheers bud

Originally Posted by Beardo

GGGGGrrrrrrr don't really watch the news or read the papers (tooo depressing) I'll google it. cheers bud

Here you go. It was just about the biggest political story of the year after the General Election.

Sorry to hear that mate but as jdp said it's happened to a lot of others. Some have been told they overpaid but most have apparently underpaid!

If you still have payslips I would go through them and check they have used correct tax code etc and try www.listentotaxman.com this is a good place to work out how much tax and NI etc you should be paying.

My wife had an £800 bill a few months ago for the 2008-9 tax year! Luckily she has kept all wage slips and paperwork and we found it is due to having 2 x P45's from the same company after she was made redundant and working it all out both were wrong!! Sent a letter in November with copies and proof of earnings etc and still waiting to hear.

Hope they are wrong and you get it sorted!

they can make any mistakes they want
and will always come back to us
i was lucky they owed me

a few mates had big bills to pay and no way of geting out of it

Thanks Guys,

Just been on the Dog to my fianc'e accountant and he's gonna take a look. fingers crossed.

I got stung a while back as my tax code was not lowered to take into account company benefits we received (medical/travel insurance, etc).

They adjusted my tax code to reclaim the underpaid tax over the course of the year. Not sure they'll do this with the sum that you potentially owe though, as maybe it's too much.

Good luck.


PS: It's only the tax office's responsibilty to issue you with a (correct) tax code. The actual calculation of how much tax you should be paying is the responsibility to your employer's payroll department.
Therefore it may not be the taxman's fault, it could be the company you work for who got it wrong.

PPS: Maybe also something else to check/bear in mind...... if your full time job earnings take you into the 40% tax bracket then ALL of your earnings from your part time job should be taxed at 40%.

Did you complete a tax return for the years in question? If you did, I'm surprised it wasn't sorted out there and then. Unfortunately the onus is on the individual to complete a tax return rather than being asked to complete one by HMRC, so not having done one is no defence in their eyes.

They've got my tax code for this year completely wrong as they based it upon my employment in 2007/2008 when I was getting high rate tax relief on pension contributions. Again, it was all in the press about the mess they'd caused by trying to merge some Tax and National Insurance computer systems together. Anyway I haven't made personal pension contributions since December 2007 when I started working for myself so I know that code is completely wrong. I tried to phone to have it adjusted but couldn't get through to them.

Hence took the decision to pay myself with a £0 tax code for 2010/2011 so come tax return time in April I know they will owe me as I know I will have overpaid tax as I've given myself zero personal allowance.

You need an accountant, a good one knows the in's and out of everything. You can claim back for overpaid tax from previous years.

er paying tax is not a LEGAL entirety ,

Tpuc.org Forum • View forum - Income Tax

OK OK, so im not a happy man today, recieved a letter in the post today, saying i have underpaid just over £700!!!

However, upon looking at the letter more in depth, its actually for the year 2007-8.

So does this mean, I dont have to pay it as it should have been dealt with within 12months, which has obviously passed by now, im pretty sure I have all my P60s from when I was employed etc??

I believe there is something called the Extra Statutory Concession (ESC A19)

I changed jobs in 2007, so this is probably why I have got this letter.

Can anyone shed some light or help on this at all please....????

TIA
Nilz

I'm sure the tax office's own rules state that if you have underpaid tax because they have failed to provide you with a correct tax code based on infomation you have provided to them then they have 12 months from the end of the tax year that the info was provided to demand the money.

So, simply put.... in your case, if your circumstances changed in 2007 and you or your employer provided the tax office with complete and correct information about this change but they failed to issue you with a correct tax code then they must send you the demand for unpaid tax by April 2009.
If they have demanded the underpayment later than this then you can apply for it to be cancelled (Extra Statutory Concession).

However, if the underpayment/incorrect tax code was due to incorrect or incomplete info provide by you or your employer then I think they can claim back the unpaid tax at any time, without a time limit.

I am going to give them a call as have been doing alot of reading up on this and it also states that you only need to keep your info for upto 22months, which would have been December 2010 i believe, so you can argue that you no longer have the paperwork to confirm tax etc.

When I got home from work yesterday, there were two official-looking envelopes. I opened one, and it was a re-calculation of my tax liability for 2008-09. It was long, confusing and mostly impenetrable, but ended with a box, the summary of which said "this is the sum you owe us/we owe you, as applicable", and a figure of £147.97. I read it four times, but still couldn't figure out who owed who the £147.97. Then I spotted a line saying "a payable order for this amount has been issued separately".

A "payable order", huh. That means they're ordering me to pay the money to them, yes? With a philosophical sigh, I opened the other envelope to find out how and by when they wanted the money, and found......a cheque!!!!

Woo-hoo!.

Beer money!

Lucky you!!

I checked with my work depts and they did send everything off properly and have sent a letter to the HMRC to explain this and have asked for exemption for this payment, so guess will just have to wait and see what happens now!!