To be annoyed and confused at HMRC

[yopa]

Ok, so I use the online personal tax account. Not been on it for a while but after staying home with the children for the past 2 years I have now started a new job.
So I did the usual deal of filling out the HMRC new starter form and I ticked box A as having no employment from 5th April this year (which is true) and sent my forms back in.
Out of curiosity I logged into my personal tax account on the government gateway website to have a nosey at my past earnings.
Unbelievable to me it shows my taxable earnings so far for the year (past 23 days) as over £5000! Showing from a previous employer which I left back in 2018.
Can someone please help me with what to do from here?
I have no idea who to contact, is it the old employer or HMRC? And which department?
Has this happened to anyone else?

I'm just so annoyed this can happen and I now have to take time to sort it out. Kind of taking the excitement out of my new job.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Also just for reference when i did work for the company on the attachment I only did so for 2 weeks as a temp contract and earned £440 so it's not a case of the wrong amount being entered as the £440 is showing in my 2018-2019 tax summary.

Give them a ring. I find HMRC hugely helpful.

Just the generic number will be fine. You'll be asked to summarise your query for their automated system. Just say something like 'PAYE looks incorrect'. They'll put you through to the right department.

Hmrc have always been really helpful when I've called before .

This has happened to me before, turned out it was just an automatically calculated estimate and it sorted itself out by the following month.

If you can't get through on the phone (I'm guessing that they might be busy) then you can do an on line chat. I had to do this last week as figures were wrong. They were very helpful and all was fixed the next day.

If you do a web chat with them then they email you a copy of the discussion so you have it for posterity. Much better than a phone call.

I've had recent web chats in a similar scenario where they haven't emailed a copy, You can print the page if you do it quickly, otherwise it disappears.

I agree, just call them. I've had a couple of issues in the past & they've always been really helpful.

Another one here to tell you they are really useful!

I've heard good things about the webchat option rather than trying to phone (I think there's a very reduced number of people staffing the phone lines right now?). They can do the same things as over the phone.

I had a similar issue a couple of days ago. Panicked as I wasn't sure if I’d paid enough tax so I called them. They were incredibly helpful and told me my correct tax code there and then. I was on hold for a good 25 minutes though but it’s definitely worth giving them a ring

Why would you be annoyed at HMRC? It is entirely possible your previous employer didn't close the loop at their end when you left.

Pretty sure it's an estimate based on your last employment. DH has been self employed for 5 years and submitted Self Assessment tax returns for all, however when you look at the new system on the personal tax page it shows an estimated annual salary with the name of his previous (5 years ago) employer.

If you look at the business account (I think) tab you get access to the normal SA returns as normal.

Thank you all for your help!
I shall give hmrc a cal.

@boredboss this is PAYE not SA

@yopa Thanks, yes I think it's very much work in progress as a new system as they're asking for feedback at the bottom of the form - my feedback to HMRC was to not show a PAYE estimate for 100% Self Employed as it's not relevant and really confusing.

@boredboss I completely agree with you, just so pointless.
Does it show estimated earnings for the year?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz
They surely did close the loop as it states employment ended May 2018.

My annoyance with HMRC is that if they are making this information accessible to the individual it needs to be correct

Isn't that just showing previous employments?

@userxx no as I never earned that and it says earned between 2020 and 2021 I left that company 2018

HMRC will take the position that it’s your responsibility to check. They are helpful when you contact them - sounds like an easy mistake to rectify.

It's saying employments that have ended since 5 April 2020. Does the figure include a previous employment taken from the P45?

No I have not earned since 2018 and that was £444

Fair enough, You can do a web chat with them if that's easier. Phone lines will probably be crazy busy at the moment.

@yopa

Yes - The PAYE tab has an estimated PAYE earnings figure for 20/21 based on the past 5 years SE earnings, with an employer DH hasn't worked for since 2016!

You can navigate to Self Assessment pages through the app, but it really should show '0' or N/A PAYE for the Self Employed.