Please could anyone savvy with tax / money help!

[GlitterBall91]

Hi, thank you for reading,

i recently had a £1300 tax bill (I’m paye, not self employed, and there was obviously an error somewhere on my tax which I didn’t notice).

i paid the bill outright using the details available on the .gov website. My banking app confirmed that the details matched those of HMRC before sending the payment.

it’s been 2 weeks and HMRC are denying having received the money! I have contacted the bank and they confirmed that the money has gone and has been received.
im not sure what to do now, I am devastated as borrowed the money from my parents in the first place .. I’m on stat maternity pay and have £150 in my account to last until the end of the month (just for context to explain how desperately I don’t need this right now 😫😭).

if HMRC deny receiving the money but the bank confirm that it has been sent and received by the correct account what do I do?! I called HMRC again to say that I have spoken to the bank and all they could repeat was that they haven’t had it 😫😭

What website did you use exactly OP. Can you link it here?

HMRC confirmed it was outstanding? They can be a nightmare for payments - are you sure you put the correct reference?

I paid a vat bill to hmrc and put the wrong reference number on it. It meant that they did receive the money but it took them a few weeks to match it to my account. They will be able to find the payment, it just takes a while.

Did you input the correct reference so HMRC can match it with your records? Some people make tax payments with no reference and with literally millions of payments going into the same account, it will take HMRC a long time to match it up.

Also, did you speak with your payroll and ask them what had happened?

Can your bank confirm which account it was sent to?

Assuming the bank details correct it's probably to do with the reference number, what did you put for that?

Why did you pay such a large amount without knowing how it has arisen?

Thank you for your responses.

I used the website that was on the letter from HMRC which is this one:

https://www.gov.uk/check-income-tax-last-year

from there I logged into my gateway and it shows me the amount owing and gives me the option to pay online. I selected bank transfer and then it gave me the account details and reference number for HMRC.

i have checked those against the details I inputted into my banking app and also confirmed with the bank the details today so it definitely isn’t a mistake with HMRC’s bank details.

i spoke with my payroll who said that they use an automated service and that HMRC send them the details to put in (ie the tax code) and the automated service does the rest.

I was going to say this. Could you have made an error when inputting your personal number? I triple check mine before pressing send. I am so anxious about HMRC because they are so difficult, even if they make a mistake.

I would double check the reference number was correct and in the right place. If you’ve confirmed the details back to HMRC website then it will be there.

I once had an issue and it was because they had allocated it to the right year (so I had a surplus in one year that equalled the deficit in the next)

the payroll sounds dodgy tbh- make sure you confirm your tax code and that they update it correctly. Have you computed the tax yourself to confirm the 1300 is correct?

When you say they are denying getting the money are they sending you chasing letters or did you ring and ask if they had it?

Given what you've said I'd assume that there's a delay at their end and it will sort itself out eventually

If you pay through the HMRC website I dont thunk the reference can be wrong as it's an automatic link iitc

What sounds dodgy about the payroll? Tax code changes are all online now as well I think

She paid by bank transfer - not through the wensite

ime payroll will be able to explain why the tax is owed and how to ensure the correct code is used going forward

Maybe I've misunderstood the selected the option to pay online sentence. I've done this before and when I clicked on that it asked me for my bank details and it did it automatically

Now I've reread it I dont see how the two things can both be right

From what the op said I think she did it as a bank transfer rather than the online payment service. I agree that if she used the latter there would be no reference issue.

Payroll don't do tax calcs, they're given a tax code by the tax office either through the online system or if old school the post. Unless the PP has BIK which sometimes can cause issues if not reported timely.

£1300 is a lot to under pay tho, I would 100% have questioned this with HMRC before paying, they're not always correct!

They may not compute it but they can normally talk you through it.

£1300 does seem a lot