Been overpaid and employer claiming it back

[Bunny2607]

Hi everyone
My partner has been overpaid the last 3 months at work by about £4500. He works on commission so his wage is never the same hence we haven’t really noticed as just assumed it was commission. He left at the end of May as got a new job.
his old employer have now realised and emailed to say they need it back, which we obviously will pay as was just an error, and they will accept a monthly payment plan which is good but does anyone know where he stands with tax? He has paid more tax obvs as on the face of it had a higher wage, so how will he get this back?
thank you

He'll get an amended P45, presumably, and the refund will come through paying less tax in his new job.

Is he sure of their calculations? £4500 is a lot extra to be paid in 3 months, without noticing.

But they need to recalculate his wage and send amended payslips so he can repay the difference in after tax income back.

He needs to agree with his employer how to pay it back, can be £500 per month or £10 a month, they have to agree together

This came up on here before and I don't think the poster HAD to pay it back as it was their mistake.

i was overpaid a teeny amount (like a hundred pounds teeny) one xmas in 2014/2015? At the time I was working for a very small catering company owned by a friend of a friend.
i did a bank transfer of it back to them (because they were friends, it wasn’t my wages - they belonged to someone else with the same name! - and it was purely human error!) but they couldn’t really have done much if I hadn’t? Would you take someone to small claims or whatever over 128 pounds?

the only slightly 😬 bit of the whole situation is I STILL get indignant letters from HMRC referring to this tax year and how I UNDERPAID MY TAX FROM THIS YEAR. And I think.. we’re seven years on guys.. clearly was earning a pittance so we’re talking I dunno… twenty quid?! Who knows. I try not to worry about it really.

sorry that’s not very helpful. As it’s such a large sum perhaps it’s worth contacting someone for advice. ACAS maybe?

Of course you have to pay it back.

Make sure it is agreed and you know your total earnings for your old job and the old job updates their records and issues new paperwork. After April you can do a self assessment tax return for the old and new job (and any other income) and if they owe you they will issue a refund.

Thank you everyone, we are happy to pay it back as it’s a mistake, it was just the query re tax we weren’t sure of. Thank you for all the replies ☺️