tax refund or maybe not

[cheerup]

I've had a letter saying that I'm due a tax refund - yippee! When I look at it more closely though the refund is because they say that I have earned under my personal allowance during the entire 12-13 tax year. That's not true. What happened was that I was TUPED to a different employer in October; the earnings they are quoting tally with my earnings to October with that employer but not with my overall 12-13 earnings. I can't find my blasted P60 which is really irritating and I'm on leave until next Wednesday I wouldn't have disposed of my P60 so it must be at work somewhere. It seems to me that I'm not actually due a refund but it would be really nice if somehow I am! Anyone got any ideas that will put me out of my misery before next week? Thanks in advance.

Ring the tax office and ask them to check?

I was trying to avoid phoning them as it's a premium rate number but did in the end and got through to a person after only 11 minutes. It cost me approx £1.50 of my own money to confirm that, as I suspected, I should not cash the refund cheque I have been sent. My new employer has not provided the revenue with the right paperwork so they have based their calculations on the P45 from the employer that I TUPE'd. A bit disappointed that I won't be receiving £663 after all and peeved that it's cost me cash to look into my employer's error. It'll be interesting to see when I get back to work next week, how many people who TUPE'd with me this has affected.

Pity really. You could have put the cheque in a savings account and waited for them to notice the mistake. By the time they asked for it back you could have earned £1.50 in interest. :)

This is why I've filled out a self-assessment tax return for the last 10+ years. Have had so many wrong tax codes and PAYE cock-ups generally that I like to know I'm all square at least once a year.