Bizarre HMRC letter re tax owed by PAYE taxpayer

Taxpayer has two PAYE sources; no calculations sent, not SA

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P60's show code mess up: allowances duplicated during 2016/17, total income around £70K.  I calculate the underpayment at £6K, HMRC letter quotes over £7K.  But why not issue tax calculations rather than send a poorly written letter ending with: "We'll contact you again shortly to tell yo how you can pay us"?

Initially I thought letter was a scam, but NINO is quoted, also their usual suggestion to use/open a Personal Tax Account.

So, has the contraption that issues P800 tax calculations (or simple assessments) broken?  

Is it a panic letter to head off an ESC A19 claim?

I'm confused.

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By SteveHa
16th Mar 2018 16:52

Pretty sure it doesn't carry any legal weight if it's not an assessment.

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By David Heaton
19th Mar 2018 12:06

P800s for 2016-17 should have been issued months ago (the process started in late September). Given the well-known issues with duplicate records in the RTI system, it is possible that the P800 issue was suppressed because the duplicated personal allowance was filtered out by an exception report, and manual intervention has been required to try to sort out the problem.

There aren't as many hands as there used to be in HMRC, and some of those who remain are agency staff who are not as well-trained as long-term staff, so it has taken some time, and I would see the letter as an attempt by HMRC to ensure your client is aware of the problem while they sort it out.

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