Is anyone else having fun with HMRC

Not sure what is happening with HMRC computers, just wondering what experiences others are having?

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My wife is employed and receives a salary / car allowance / bonus all paid monthly through PAYE.  The only BIK is medical cover.  To date everything has been fine, tax codes are correct and deductions made normally.

Enter December and it has been decided that the employing company be changed to the American parent company.  Details are sent to HMRC, quickly followed by new coding notices being issued.  

Quite shocked that despite nothing in her salary / benefits changing my wife has been put on a massive K code (Happy Christmas).

A phone call was made to HMRC and after some time we were informed that their computer had made an error and when the advisor worked through it manually there was a tiny change to the coding notice (no K code after all), we were then advised that a new coding notice "should" be issued.

It now appears that the vast majority of 550 employees have had massive changes in their tax code and we are assuming that most of them are incorrect.

It worries me that if this one had not been challenged, how many changes would have been made leaving employees short of money over the Christmas period.  Not sure whether I should be surprised at the apparent lack of oversight at HMRC or not, but was wondering what similar experiences any of you may have encountered? 

 

 

Replies (8)

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RLI
By lionofludesch
06th Dec 2018 13:12

It'll be to pay for HMRC's Xmas party.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By Paul Barclay
06th Dec 2018 13:41

So obvious now you mention it :)

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By SteveHa
06th Dec 2018 13:35

Likely a timing issue with the RTI submission by the old company and the new, leading HMRC to believe that everyone had two employments for a short while, triggering the tax codes.

The joys of dynamic coding.

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Replying to SteveHa:
RLI
By lionofludesch
06th Dec 2018 13:51

SteLacca wrote:

The joys of dynamic coding.

I had a call from an ex-client (left self employment to take two part-time proper jobs) who'd built up a £4400+ debt because, for whatever reason (to be established), she had a personal allowance at each job for two years.

I counted over 30 opportunities for dynamic coding to spot this (over two years' monthly RTIs, plus two P800s) and pointed this out to HMRC. Their response ? "We don't check the RTIs every month." Well, no, I don't expect you to check millions of employees' records by hand - your sooper-dooper software was supposed to flag this stuff up automatically.

So I think we can safely say Dynamic Coding is - shall we say - less than reliable.

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Replying to SteveHa:
RLI
By lionofludesch
06th Dec 2018 14:01

Bless me - I've just altered a tax code and immediately got an email from the employer wondering who's going to fund this £2266 tax repayment to his employee who was being taxed as though she still had the job she left in March.

Still, these problems will be a thing of the past when Dynamic Coding starts. ©

Oh - hang on a minute - it has started, hasn't it ?

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By Matrix
06th Dec 2018 16:01

The problem originates from the new employer's payroll department, they must have created a duplicate employment record by not giving the employees exactly the same employee ids as before.

This shouldn't be allowed to happen but the payroll company should also know what they are doing and, for such a large payroll, should be able to resolve directly with HMRC.

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By GHarr497688
06th Dec 2018 19:13

Yes I had a bad experience . I took a single pension payment of £10000 and so for some reason HMRC assumed my income was £520000 per year and gave me a code based on that income. When I challenged it they denied it was ever their even though I kept the print out from my personal tax account !!

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By Paul Barclay
07th Dec 2018 11:12

Apparently they were totally bemused that your income had reduced to such a tiny amount :)

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