Underpayment letter

[Hopkirk]

I have just received the dreaded letter from HMRC, saying I underpaid PAYE tax last year to the tune of £650ish.

They are going to take it back next year by adjusting my tax code.

This is so annoying, as I do not have any complications to blame it on - no company car or the like. I do have a second job, but that is taxed as BR (basic rate) so that shouldn't cause any problem.

As it is all stopped from my pay before I receive it, there is nothing I can have done wrong.

Is there any point in me complaining or appealing, or should I just accept it?

[Greedyfly]

Yes complain a work colleague did the same. Wrote to them stating and proving with correspondence that they had sent her letters (p60?) stating she owed them nothing and they also owed her nothing. They have written her supposed debt of £950 off.

Why should you have to pay for their mistake? Yes you do owe tax, but not knowingly and I am sure none of us would have choosen to pay a lower tax last year knowing we would have to pay it back this year. Their mistake their problem in my eyes.

[Hopkirk]

Panic over, I have discovered an error two years ago that has caused this.
I am not liable for this tax, but now have the task of proving this to the tax man.

The employer for my second job changed mid year, and I was transferred across under TUPE regulations.

At the end of the year a mistake was made on the P60, whereby the earnings from the previous employmer were added in twice. A handwritten re-issued P60 was given out, but the taxman has calculated using the original incorrect P60.

I can sleep well now.

[factor-fiction]

It's good that this looks as if it will be sorted.
But such notifications of underpayment are not blaming you in any way- they are simply a notification that HMRC made a mistake which meant some people underpaid tax and now the HMRC will start to take the underpaid moneys.

[boxtops]

HMRC have already said that as long as you can prove that your tax was in order and that you have already supplied them with all the necessary information, they will look again at any of these new demands. Have a look here, useful pro forma suggestion which I am keeping just in case I get the letter too: http://www.telegraph....llenge-your-bill.html

[buildersmate]

It is your employer who has been a naughty boy.
It is simply verboten to change a P60 in this manner by re-issuing another one - which is why the only way to attempt to do it would have been by hand.
Once the end of the year occurs, companies have to make a PAYE/NI submission to HMRC and this aligns to your P60. No changes after that.

[Hopkirk]

Well they had made a mistake on it, so had to re-issue.

They sent a covering letter, which I will use when explaining to HMRC.