I’m hoping someone a bit smarter than myself can help me here. In May last year I changed jobs, both jobs are/were full time employment, paid by the hour, weekly pay.
I recently got a letter from HMRC saying the following:
“You had two employments at the same time and both employers were applying a PAYE code giving the full tax free allowances - you therefore received more allowances than were due.”
I’ve never worked 2 jobs at the same time in my life, I can’t get enough time for myself working one job! They next page of the letter says I am owe them £1150.60, then a follow up letter claimed they cannot take the money using my next tax code so I have to just pay them the money, by 2nd November and they had the cheek to include a payment slip that I can just pay the full amount. Good One.
With a 3 month old daughter on the go I don’t have that kind of money for a start, but I don’t see why I should pay anyway, as its surely an employers fault?
Does any have any advice what I should do, I’m thinking of sending a letter with a photo copy of my P60’s and a wee cover note saying I haven’t work 2 jobs at the same time.
stuartrobbie:
I’m hoping someone a bit smarter than myself can help me here. In May last year I changed jobs, both jobs are/were full time employment, paid by the hour, weekly pay.
I recently got a letter from HMRC saying the following:
“You had two employments at the same time and both employers were applying a PAYE code giving the full tax free allowances - you therefore received more allowances than were due.”
I’ve never worked 2 jobs at the same time in my life, I can’t get enough time for myself working one job! They next page of the letter says I am owe them £1150.60, then a follow up letter claimed they cannot take the money using my next tax code so I have to just pay them the money, by 2nd November and they had the cheek to include a payment slip that I can just pay the full amount. Good One.
With a 3 month old daughter on the go I don’t have that kind of money for a start, but I don’t see why I should pay anyway, as its surely an employers fault?
Does any have any advice what I should do, I’m thinking of sending a letter with a photo copy of my P60’s and a wee cover note saying I haven’t work 2 jobs at the same time.
I would ask your former employer to supply you with letter stating the date that you left their employment if that is possible, and a letter from your current employer stating when you started with them, I would then copy these letters before you send them off, next write to hmrc stating the fact that you haven’t work for 2 at the same time, and ask them to recheck their records as you believe them to be incorrect, always do everything in writing and take copies of anything you send and also send the letters by recorded delivery, that way they can’t say they didn’t get them.
Good call on the letters from employers, I doubt my previous employer will help me, even though I left on good terms. If I remember I’ll update this thread
stuartrobbie:
I’m hoping someone a bit smarter than myself can help me here. In May last year I changed jobs, both jobs are/were full time employment, paid by the hour, weekly pay.
I recently got a letter from HMRC saying the following:
“You had two employments at the same time and both employers were applying a PAYE code giving the full tax free allowances - you therefore received more allowances than were due.”
I’ve never worked 2 jobs at the same time in my life, I can’t get enough time for myself working one job! They next page of the letter says I am owe them £1150.60, then a follow up letter claimed they cannot take the money using my next tax code so I have to just pay them the money, by 2nd November and they had the cheek to include a payment slip that I can just pay the full amount. Good One.
With a 3 month old daughter on the go I don’t have that kind of money for a start, but I don’t see why I should pay anyway, as its surely an employers fault?
Does any have any advice what I should do, I’m thinking of sending a letter with a photo copy of my P60’s and a wee cover note saying I haven’t work 2 jobs at the same time.
First of all i’d relax, its just a letter. Something has gone wrong. Did you provide your P45 from your last employer to your present employer ? Even if you did it looks like your present employer has been using your tax code starting from scratch i.e asuming you have not used your tax allowance.
You havn’t said what tax period this is covering so i’ll guess we’re talking about the 2012/2013 tax year ?
In anycase its your current employer who has failed to apply the correct tax coding to you. I’d suggest you ring up HMRC on 0300 200 3300 and have your letter and NI number to hand and explain that you cannot pay and read them the details off your P60’s?P45 etc…
Bottom line is if you do owe it you will have to pay it irrespective of whose fault it is, its just how you’re going to pay it. I’m sure if you explain whats happened they’ll adjust your tax code even thought the letter said they wouldn’t.
It could be that you changed jobs and both employers used you personal allowance resulting in you underpaying tax. I am currently paying more tax this year ie, a lower personal allowance, for tax year 2010 - 2012 because of this.
Wayne:
It could be that you changed jobs and both employers used you personal allowance resulting in you underpaying tax. I am currently paying more tax this year ie, a lower personal allowance, for tax year 2010 - 2012 because of this.
yeah that’s pretty much the way the letter is written out. They say I cant adjust my tax code to cover it, maybe something to do with child tax credits? just had a wee girl 3 months ago.
going to have to learn how to work out tax codes and keep an eye on it from now on, as I don’t want to be punished for an employers fault again. its the fact they want it in one lump sum that’s worrying me, who has that kind of money to just fire away
Assuming you had two jobs then your first or primary source of income should (generally) have the standard allowance which I believe for 2013/14 is 944L which means you can receive £9440 per year free of income tax. Your second job would, assuming that you do not go above the 40% bandwidth of £32011, be given a tax coding notice of BR - Basic Rate.
HMRC are technically correct in what they are saying that because, in their opinion, you have two jobs and have received the basic 944L coding allowance, you are now liable to them for the £1150.60 And because of the amount of money which you owe them, they will generally insist that you re-imburse them directly as opposed to them reclaiming it over the remains of a year through PAYE.
The issue we now have is that, and I have no reason to disbelieve you, is that you only have the one job.
From your own personal stress point of view, I would not write to them but call them instead and yes, I do understand that you will be on the phone for an age but really for the most part this is the best way to deal with it.
Also, check what your tax coding notice is on your wage slips for this year (assuming this is the year in which they are stating the allowance error was in) and maybe post back here if inclined.
With the new Real Time reporting system which HMRC have brought in, there are some bugs in the system and hopefully you are just one of them which can easily be sorted out.
Explain the situation to them. It sounds like the old employer didn’t inform HMRC of the cessation in employment for whatever reason.
You should have a P60 from both employers or a P45 from the old one and a P60 from the new one. You may need to send those in to HMRC. You did keep the P45 and P60s■■?
To work out what tax you should have paid go to this site.
Put in the COMBINED gross TAXABLE pay total from both employments for that year, make sure you’ve selected the year 2012/13 on the left and hit calculate. It’ll tell you how much tax you should’ve paid or as near as ■■■■ it. If the figure is quite out and comparable to HMRC’s calculation then you probably owe the money.
it reads to me as if they think I had 2 jobs at the same time though. I do have the p60s but cant find a p45 from old employer, the old employer tried to withhold my holiday pay they were owe me, even though I left on good terms they ended up making it akward.
Ill phone on Monday before sending a letter as ill have a few hours to spare during office hours
First stop worrying about this as it is quite common this happened to my son couple years ago he wrote to them also sent in his P45 & P60 did then receive a tax rebate
When you write to them keep a copy of all letters etc so if asked you can prove you have written to them so can send duplicates if needed
This happened to me too although it was only for £146 I got a full time job & then worked 1 day for my old agency on a Sunday for which I earned £148
I argued why so much they said I had 2 jobs so had to pay but they did take it out of the next tax year & just changed my tax code
essexandy1963:
This happened to me too although it was only for £146 I got a full time job & then worked 1 day for my old agency on a Sunday for which I earned £148
I argued why so much they said I had 2 jobs so had to pay but they did take it out of the next tax year & just changed my tax code
I dont see why if you have earnt £148 you should be liable for £146 in tax - that means your tax rate is approaching 100%!!
Surely you should only have been liable for £24.66 (148/6)?
Thanks for the advice guys, I phoned up this morning, and a hour and a bit on the phone and a very pleasant woman on the other end of the phone. The problem isn’t an incorrect tax code, its right back to the first sentence of the letter they sent me “two employments at the same time”. Their records show that I had 3 employers last year and not 2. Even more strange is they tell me the mysterious third employer is a restaurant called Taz Restaurant. I’ve not looked it up, but I have stayed in this area all my life and never heard of a restaurant in the area called that, and from someone who has went from being a Joiner/Carpenter to a Driver, working in a restaurant is as far from where I would like to be as possible.
The pleasant woman on the phone has taken masses of details and told me everything I need to do in writing, and she basically thinks a letter with P60’s and P45’s and wage slips will be enough to resolve the issue.
So hopefully that’s the last ill hear of it, if not ill bore you with more
Silver_Surfer:
HMRC Paye or whatever are a chuffing nightmare to deal with, bunch of jobsworth ■■■■■’s.
Last time I had a query I gave up trying to phone & decided to pop into the local tax office. Couldn’t believe it when I was told I couldn’t speak to anyone face to face I had to use one of the phones in the foyer to call them - absolutely crazy, & useless as well.
Oh, & to the OP, if it is Tas restaurants that you are referring to they are a chain of Turkish restaurants - we go to one in Faringdon occasionally when visiting family - nice place but all foreign staff so a good possibility that there’s something fishy going on.
and they had the cheek to include a payment slip that I can just pay the full amount. Good One.
