Tax refund help?

[ihearttc]

I will try to make this as brief as possible because it's quite confusing so feel free to ask if non of it makes sense...it doesn't entirely make sense to me either!

Yesterday completely out of the blue DH received a letter saying he had overpaid tax for the year 2013-14 and would be receiving a cheque with a refund. Don't want to go into exact amounts but its 4 figures.

As you can imagine we got quite excited and mentally spent it all! However I then checked all the paperwork with it and they had his tax code right but a completely random amount for his salary. DH is a relatively high earner (well high for us anyway) but the salary was very low...virtually as low as his tax code if that makes sense?

So he called the helpline and he was asked his tax code and they then said it was a mistake and to just send the cheque back when it arrived. Obviously DH will do this but we are totally confused as to how they arrived at this random figure for his salary. He works for a major company and has never filled in any tax forms or anything...its all done through payroll.

He gets paid his salary, then a company car allowance,annual bonus,travel allowance and he also gets his expenses paid. He pays out his pension from his salary before he receives it.

DH asked them how they got to this figure and they wouldn't tell him. Im all set to just write it off as one of those things but something is niggling me as not quite right but I don't know what.

He wondered if somehow he'd been paying tax on his pension when he shouldn't have been...would that cause them to generate a completely separate "salary"?

There is absolutely zero correlation to what they have got his salary at and what his salary actually is yet the tax code/personal allowance is correct...ie he couldn't have that as his salary if that was his tax code! Surely these things get checked before they are sent out and they must have got this random figure from somewhere.

To complicate matters even further DH works abroad a great deal so is away for the next 10 days and can't actually get in to see Payroll or even really call Inland Revenue.

I realise Im totally clutching at straws but I just wondered if there is anyway it could be correct and we are entitled to it...the man he spoke to literally just asked his tax code and then said it was the same as what he had so it must be a mistake. He didn't ask any further questions as to how his "salary" is broken up.

Any suggestions welcome!

Xpost, iheart, I would certainly give them a call to clarify that you are registered. Hopefully that is the case.

yes Liz...I claimed from when I had DS1 and then DS2. I only stopped actually claiming the money when they changed the threshold.

Oh crossed posts...ok I will get him to speak to HMRC. Is there an option to speak to someone more senior do you think?

Yes he can probably call from where he is working...it's the Middle East so not a massive time difference or anything but I know the number is a premium rate and it seems like it could take a long time and he hasn't got the information with him at the moment its all at home.

Thank you so much for everyone's help...I really do appreciate it.

I'm a tax advisor and phoning HMRC is pointless around 90% of the time unless you are rich enough to have a named person at HMRC dealing with you, and as you're not millionaires you can't get that service. Honestly their switchboards are horrific, quite often manned by trainees with minimal training.

Write to them, sending them a photocopy of his p60 and the letter they sent you, tell them from your rough calculations you are unsure how a refund of this magnitude has been calculated (don't say we don't think we are entitled to a refund, that's too much of assumption), could they write to you again to confirm? Your DH will have to write to them, but you could probably pp in place of his signature, I doubt they'd notice.

If it was a human error / processing mistake they will never admit it. RTI (Real Time Information = information being entered electronically, not a repeated manual process, and databases talking to each other) is supposed to sort these kind of errors but in practice RTI is falling down at HMRCs end quite often and manual entry is still being relied on. So if they write back and confirm no refund, don't expect an apology, they won't admit there's a fault in the system.

Just as a final point. Payroll won't help, they have signed it off and sent it, they also cannot liase with hmrc on your husbands behalf.

If you ring hmrc there is no record of your call. You CAN speak to them but your dh will have to be there to give you authority.

You need to do what I said, send a copy of the p60, check this has the correct figures on it by comparing it to the march payslip. Send this with a letter enclosing the chq sent to you in error. Ask them to check their records and confirm it is all correct, including his ni number and date of birth. You also should quite the PAYE reference for the company, this should be on the p60.

I cannot stress enough that you should write, not call.

How much does he work abroad/did he work abroad during that tax year? If alot in one other country it could be that he is also being taxed in that country, and his UK liability goes down due to double taxation treaties. Companies normally handle this so it is invisible to the employee, but it could be that something has been wrongly declared (ie the 11K is the 'UK earned' proportion of his salary or something, but the rest would also be taxable, just that he's paid the tax due on it in the other outcry -via his employer- to another tax authority rather than HMRC).

Damn autocorrect, quote not quite!

Even if he works abroad in a tax free situation he will be taxed as a uk employee if the service is based here and it doesn't sound like he is out of the country consistently for long enough periods.

Penguin...I think I will copy P60 etc this week and then write a letter and get him to sign it as soon as he gets back and send it off. Im assuming it would be better to send it Recorded so that I have proof it gets there?

Ive checked everything on the letter against the P60 and NI number/DOB/Payroll reference and employer reference all matches up. The only thing that doesn't match is this random salary!

He works abroad a great deal-probably at least a week a month. More some months but less others. However he is there for his company if that makes sense...he travels there to deal with clients on a personal level and then travels back again. His company pays for his travel,for his hotels and he is paid by then when he is over there through his normal salary in this country. He doesn't always go to the same country either...its usually the same area of the world but not usually the same place.

Ok it sounds like a hmrc error. If you need any help with anything send me a message. I know I've harped on but seriously you need a paper trail to cover yourself.

Good luck!

Thank you so so much Penguin...really appreciate it!

Ive actually just spoken to DH...he landed in Beirut before his connecting flight and called to speak to the boys! Im going to copy everything and look through all his files to find anymore paperwork which will have his car allowance,bonus and pension details on as well to see if there is anything there which could be causing it and then send a letter with copies of the letter they sent to us together with copy of this years P60.

I might take you up on your kind offer of messaging you if I get completely stuck!

Thanks everyone once again.