Our lovely taxman

Hobbit

Hobbit

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Four different tax codes in three weeks, two of them on the same day. The codes ranging from nice L codes to a K code that feels like one of your testicles is in a garlic crusher. Four different company car benefit numbers for the same car - that's a neat trick. A calculated monthly tax bill in excess of £6k.

5mins of "for option 1..." And then 25 mins of music to hang yourself by accompanied by announcements, "one of our xxxx will be with you shortly." Well that's not my version of shortly FFS!!!

"Yes sir, our system often throws out stuff like this. We wait for the call" I'm sorry but what about all the calcs that are only £20 out, and the payer doesn't realise and just coughs up without querying it. "Sorry but there's nothing we can do about those."

Yes you can! Fix the bloody computer or learn to do it manually.
 
Only 25 minutes Brian, you did well!

After about 45 minutes I was then passed to 4 different people who couldn't help until I was told that the problem was a "mapping error" and that the computer couldn't understand that someone can't have "earned too little to pay tax"
 
In my experience, when tax codes are messed up like this and there are company cars involved....its generally your employer who has messed it up, and sent incorrect/conflicting information to HMRC.
 
snell said:
In my experience, when tax codes are messed up like this and there are company cars involved....its generally your employer who has messed it up, and sent incorrect/conflicting information to HMRC.
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This time last year I had 3 company cars at the same time, allegedly. When I spoke to them then they said they'd received the correct notifications, going back 6 years and and the system had correctly deleted them at the time but for some reason they had reappeared.
 
Since i left the RAF and with my pension i have had a total of 9 tax codes in those 3 years

In that period i have under paid tax and then over paid and this year over paid again

They are awful to speak to and seem utterly incompetant
 
Hobbit said:
This time last year I had 3 company cars at the same time, allegedly. When I spoke to them then they said they'd received the correct notifications, going back 6 years and and the system had correctly deleted them at the time but for some reason they had reappeared.
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That is weird, as with all systems there will be anomalies

But in general when it comes to underpayments regarding company cars, its your epmloyer to blame.
 
Well well well, I was gonna post this the other week but did not want to enhance my most miserable sod on the forum title.

proper screwed up my tax codes for next year they have. Spent 45 mins on phone only for the to say take no notice of them. That three months after me ringing them and telling them my sis in law who works in Notts tax office says you have paid to much and they owe you. Sent a cheque to them yesterday because one of my pension management team forgot to take tax out a source. They gave me two weeks to pay tax but told me I had to wait four months for the extra I have paid.

Sis in law said tax system is now set up so you can, sort your own tax allowances on line. Making you accountable for any discrepancies.
 
:rant: Don't get me started, I'm in the same boat, and I've been told it's all my fault. The reason; whilst my current income and my work pension combined make me liable for 40% tax, neither one does so in it's own right. It wouldn't be a problem if I earned more; seriously, I was told that. You couldn't make it up.

When I first changed jobs in 2012, they couldn't get it right; one month I barely paid any tax, next month I barely got any pay. After 4 months of this farce (and no small number of calls to the tax office) I changed jobs and for the last 39 months all appeared well. Until the demand for 2 and a half grand landed this month. The first phone call got a fair bit of that removed as, without any evidence they were taxing me for a medical benefit I don't receive, in fact he worked out that I had overpaid for this year. Can you take that off the debt? Oh no, we've got to refund that and then take extra off you next year!! The second call got a most objectionable woman who was more concerned with how much more she could charge me. The latest solution is to issue tax codes that will collect 6 grand more tax next year to collect a debt of about 1700 quid.

Oh, and their poxy letters. "You have underpaid tax"; No I have not. All my income comes to me AFTER you have had your little dib in. You have under collected you useless cretins, I have not underpaid. :sbox:
 
Blue in Munich said:
:rant: The latest solution is to issue tax codes that will collect 6 grand more tax next year to collect a debt of about 1700 quid.

Oh, and their poxy letters. "You have underpaid tax"; No I have not. All my income comes to me AFTER you have had your little dib in. You have under collected you useless cretins, I have not underpaid. :sbox:
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Apparently, I'd underpaid by £1300, and they wanted to collect £8.5k. After today's call...nothing to pay. Tax code where it should be, and nothing to pay. Big apology too!
 
Try getting a £3k rebate, celebrating, paying off a credit card and then them write to you and say it was a mistake 5 weeks later and I owe them £4500 and interest starts today.
 
Every change in your tax code results in a P2 - Notice of Coding being issued to you and a P6 being issued to your employer. It is your responsibility to check this and if anything is wrong let HMRC know. Seemingly small details like estimated pay may seem insignificant but if wrong can lead to big problems. Similarly if your income is spread among a few employers/pension providers or straddles the tax bands it is important that you check all info is correct to prevent problems occurring.

HMRC do make mistakes occasionally but are overwhelmingly accurate in the vast majority of cases. A lot of the problems arise from incorrect/old information being provided or information not being sent timeously by the employer, especially where Benefits are concerned. Overpayments and underpayments are common within PAYE where changes have occurred within the tax year.
 
I could paperthe whole house with all the letters ive had in the last 14 months since changing jobs.

Speaking to these people is nigh on impossible, clueless.
 
Fromtherough said:
Every change in your tax code results in a P2 - Notice of Coding being issued to you and a P6 being issued to your employer. It is your responsibility to check this and if anything is wrong let HMRC know. Seemingly small details like estimated pay may seem insignificant but if wrong can lead to big problems. Similarly if your income is spread among a few employers/pension providers or straddles the tax bands it is important that you check all info is correct to prevent problems occurring.

HMRC do make mistakes occasionally but are overwhelmingly accurate in the vast majority of cases. A lot of the problems arise from incorrect/old information being provided or information not being sent timeously by the employer, especially where Benefits are concerned. Overpayments and underpayments are common within PAYE where changes have occurred within the tax year.
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So what's their excuse when they are receiving all the information and still getting it wrong then. I think I'm on my 4th set of tax codings in a month and the first bloke I spoke to told me the tax codes were as they should be, i.e. BR codes to acknowledge the fact that there is bother source of income. The pension has not changed since it started and will not until March 2017, pay rises in public service, don't make me laugh.

Curiously enough there are two of us in the same office with the same predicament, yet we have different previous employers. Only common causal link; the overwhelmingly accurate HMRC………….. :rolleyes:
 
virtuocity said:
Inept, incompetent, useless organisation, designed to screw the working person whilst being toothless in the pursuit of those who evade tax.
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Brilliant description of these muppets and I think you've solved my problem; I shall ring them tomorrow and tell them I've changed my name to Google Starbucks, I'll never pay a penny again! :thup:
 
Fromtherough said:
Every change in your tax code results in a P2 - Notice of Coding being issued to you and a P6 being issued to your employer. It is your responsibility to check this and if anything is wrong let HMRC know. Seemingly small details like estimated pay may seem insignificant but if wrong can lead to big problems. Similarly if your income is spread among a few employers/pension providers or straddles the tax bands it is important that you check all info is correct to prevent problems occurring.

HMRC do make mistakes occasionally but are overwhelmingly accurate in the vast majority of cases. A lot of the problems arise from incorrect/old information being provided or information not being sent timeously by the employer, especially where Benefits are concerned. Overpayments and underpayments are common within PAYE where changes have occurred within the tax year.
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1st para; yes, I do all of that. Having spent a huge amount of time working on my dads tax I've got no problem doing all of this.

2nd para; they admitted the car mistakes last year,and they have admitted failings today.

in terms of how many people in any given workforce have tax issues, the number is less than one percent. In fairness that is a great number. However, I feel HMRC fails dismally in how it rectifies errors. Once things get a little complicated they fail to escalate it up to competent practitioners quickly enough.

in the last week of my fathers life he received 5 different tax codings. He had experienced problems most of his retirement as he had pensions from several EU countries. Yes it was complex, but how come him and I could work out his tax and HMRC couldn't? Answer, coz apart from the odd excellent employee they are idiots.
 
Hobbit said:
1st para; yes, I do all of that. Having spent a huge amount of time working on my dads tax I've got no problem doing all of this.

2nd para; they admitted the car mistakes last year,and they have admitted failings today.

in terms of how many people in any given workforce have tax issues, the number is less than one percent. In fairness that is a great number. However, I feel HMRC fails dismally in how it rectifies errors. Once things get a little complicated they fail to escalate it up to competent practitioners quickly enough.

in the last week of my fathers life he received 5 different tax codings. He had experienced problems most of his retirement as he had pensions from several EU countries. Yes it was complex, but how come him and I could work out his tax and HMRC couldn't? Answer, coz apart from the odd excellent employee they are idiots.
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I do empathise with your predicament and can appreciate your frustration. After all any error by HMRC in terms of a tax code will have a financial impact on the person concerned. I do think that relying so heavily on the employer is partly to blame. Also, if a person is in Self Assessment then their tax code is largely based on what was entered on this (coupled with P11d) and thus the information used is potentially well out of date. This is possibly where mistakes occurred with your Dad's tax code.

Real time information should have alleviated some of these issues though. Plus the new Personal Tax Accounts that are being introduced are designed to enable a person to take responsibility and resolve these issues themselves. I don't know how this will work in practice though. Unfortunately I imagine errors will occasionally occur, especially in complex cases. However, I agree - once notified you would expect HMRC to resolve the issue.
 
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