Tax return question

[OlafsTwig]

I'm doing my tax return for 19-20.

I left a job in mid March 2020. The paperwork didn't get to payroll, they paid me in full at the end of March and issued a P60. I then got a "nil" P45 in April (for 20-21), and an invoice for the pay owed but with no tax-type details on it.

What do I put in my tax return? Have I got all the info I need? I can't help thinking that I should either have a replacement P60, or a P45 with negative pay, or the P45 I should have got all along in 19-20.

I don't know the answer but I agree you have a problem - an invoice is not an appropriate way to deal with this as your tax records won't be complete.

try logging in to your account at HMRC and look at what details they have for April maybe? it is possible that the payroll people did sort out the tax end but if they couldn't be arsed to grapple with HMRC they may have decided to just reclaim the overpayment from you but to write-off the overpaid tax and NI they would have already sent to HMRC. that makes their life easier but creates an amount of earnings on which you effectively get double-taxed in 2019-20 if you have other earnings apart from your main employment. if you don't have other earnings (and if you don't need the figures to be accurate for benefit claims) then I think the mix up has no effect - hmrc are under the impression that you earned more, but have received the tax due on the higher figure so don't need to know differently.

Thanks, Kiho. My other income for that year is my first few weeks of my new job (for which I've got a P60 and all is fine).

If my tax is a bit of a mess then I also wonder about my pension (public sector). It's only a few weeks, so I don't really care except that a) I'm a pedant and I want it to be right - or at least to understand that someone has made a conscious choice to write it off, and b) I don't want someone accusing me of fraud at some point in the future.