Metropol

Recently, I've changed jobs. I left my old job on 18 March and started my new job on 28 March. My old employer generated my P45 for me and it went straight to my new employer on my first day. At no point in 2010/2011 have I had two jobs, and my only income is from my employment at one job. Oh, and the salary at boths jobs is pretty much the same.

This morning, I received no less than 4 letters (all stuffed into the same envelope) from HMRC:

The first one (dated 31/3) says that my tax code for 2010/2011 is being changed from 647L to 315L, with my personal allowance being reduced by 'other earnings or pension' of £3319...I don't have this 3 grand of other earnings though! Where would they get that idea from? Curiously, this letter lists my old company as my employer, even though I'd left them by the date of the letter.

Anyway, the second letter (also dated 31/3) lists my new company as my employer, and advises me that my tax code is now 331T for 2010/2011. The notes state 'We know you have another job, or pension' - even though I don't and haven't at any point during the 2010/2011 year.

The third letter (dated 1/4) states that my tax code for 2011/2012 is 377L, replacing 747L (when I don't have anything to say that it changed to 747L in the first place). Again this is attributed to my personal allowance being reduced by 'other earnings or pension', this time in the amount of £3697 (and again, I don't have these earnings). This one also states 'we believe you are currently between jobs).

The fourth and final letter (dated 1/4) lists my new company as my employer, and advises me that my tax code has changed again and is now 369T for 2011/2012. As with the second letter, the notes say 'we know you have another job, or pension'. And again, I don't.

As far as I can tell, the upshot of this is that I'm going to pay tax on an extra 3 grand. But does anyone who understand these things know what the fudge is going on or why this should happen????!!!

'Other earnings' includes company benefits like medical insurance, use of a company car, petrol allowance, etc.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/codes- ... nefits.htm

If your new employer does not provide with you any such benefits then you should ring HMRC for clarification.

yep, ring hmrc.

i've not had this happen to me personally, but when our payroll was outsourced the tax office seemed to detect that a colleague had changed job and his the earnings from his pension were suddenly not taken into account... i think 3 years on he's still paying the underpayment off because they've fecked up twice now.

in short: get it sorted with them and keep everything they send you/make a record of everything they tell you with time/dates etc because if in a couple of years time they decide that you've not paid the right amount of tax you'll be in a much stronger position appeal because they really are useless.

I'm still awaiting a refund for this kind of error nearly a year after it has happened - I get different answers each time I ring so much so that I can't be bothered to chase it anymore - I wonder how many other people think this way?

But the good news is that if you ring HMRC and explain your circumstances then they will change your tax code back to what it should be. The frustrating thing is this can take time to actually filter through as HMRC will then notify your employer who will then forward it on to payroll and depending on how attentive your payroll department is will finally update it when calculating your tax.

Mine changed pretty quickly but there were a few months where I was paying a lot more tax due to the reduced personal allowance and, as I say, I'm still waiting for this to be refunded.

I've never had any success getting through to a tax office on the phone. Usually you get the delightfully abrupt "we are receiving a high number of calls at the moment so fuck off" message and the line drops. Took me 9 months to get back £50 in emergency tax and I suspect that was due to HR rather than them.

It sounds to me that your new employer may have incorrectly processed your P45 from your previous employer. The correct manner would have been to place you on the tax code your previous employer was operating and enter your earnings and tax paid for the year.

The reduction in your personal allowance usually would happen when your employer submits P11d forms detailing any benefits they provide. In my case my employer submitted these in May but HMRC then didn't process them and provide my employer with the revised code until December. The tax code notification that I receive however clearly states what the benefit is categorised as.

It would appear that HMRC think that you have two employments. I assume your new employer did not ask you to complete a form P46 - this has three statements about whether you have worked previously.

The mention of the change to 747L is understandable. The tax code that an employer would use for a new employee, from 6 April, who had not worked at any point in the year would be 747L. This replaces 647L which would have been applied in the previous year.

In terms of reclaiming emergency tax a colleague found the quickest response for his son was to write a simple letter detailing the amounts paid in the year and attach copied of P60s. He then received a relatively speedy response. This however was in the days when HMRC had more staff and worked out of local offices. Nowdays HMRC prefer large contact centres.

The other possibility is that your previous employer has not submitted the P45 they issued to you on leaving to HMRC. Depending on the size of both employers involved you may find one has a requirement to submit these forms electronically to HMRC while the other doesn't.

You certainly need to contact HMRC. Make notes of every conversation with them time, date, and name of the person you speak to. It would seem you need to push HMRC to change your code back to 747L. Sadly I doubt this will be done quickly enough for any employer to process in the April payroll - all these Bank Holidays mean most companies will end up running rather early.

Some advice on sorting out tax code cockups at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/check-tax-code might be worth a read

To offset the issues reported above, I had been issued the wrong tax code (although it was quite a black-and-white case), got through to the tax office within a minute or so and they had it fixed within 10, with a nice refund cheque appearing a couple of weeks later. So it's not ALL bad!