DH's work now owe him £1100 in overpaid tax

[WordsAreNoUseAtAll]

DH works for a very large company. He has been working for them now for about nine months, and is still on "0T" tax code, which means that, out of his £500 monthly wages, he pays about £100 of it in tax. He has spoken to the tax office, who agree that he should be repaid the extra that he has paid by his work, and he has been asking now for three months. Every time payroll say it will definitely be in his next pay packet, and every time it isn't. The actual tax office say their hands are tied till April, at which point they can refund DH and take it form the company.

This is now a huge part of our income, and an absolute non amount to the company. They owe him over a thousand pounds.

Can we do anything at all?

The tax will have been paid to the Inland revenue, so it's not as simple as the company paying it back. When the tax code is corrected he will receive a rebate in his pay, but it will be a refund from the IR, not the employer.

The Tax office won't do anything until the end of the tax year, but if it isn't sorted by then you can claim a rebate. see here

Has he had another job in this financial year? I earn a similar amount in my current job so, if nothing changes, WEF Apr 2012 I'm a non-taxpayer, but as I am a tax-payer from a previous job this tax year, I'm paying a similar amount of tax to your DH ATM.

Why is he still on an emergency tax code? The tax office should have sent him and his employer a coding notice. Is that happened or has his employer ignored it.

If he gets onto the correct tax code pdq then he might get the tax back in his pay. Basically, he'll have less tax deducted until the full amount is refunded. If he gets to the end of the tax year having paid too much then he'll need to contact the tax office to arrange a refund.

TBH I'd prioritise chasing up the correct tax code.

So, what can he do to get the money back? The tax office said he just had to ask his employer, and payroll keep saying it is sorted out.

He has had another job, but it paid around the same as this one - full time jobs are a bit of a rarity round here :(

We are really going to struggle this month now. We have enough wriggle room in our finances to cope with the lower income short term, but it has meant that we are really starting to need things like new shoes, and we had been looking forward to this repayment after we had used our savings at Christmas.

Oh shit. Just realised that it is DD1s fifth birthday before the next pay cheque. We promised her that we would hire the community hall. Bollocks.

We can't afford to be losing a fifth of his wages until April. Is there nothing we can do?

How can he chase up the code? He spoke to the tax office and they said that it is sorted out at their end, but the employer needs to do their bit. They gave him the impression that he would get the lump sum in his pay packet, and so did payroll.

So is that not true then?

That's really upsetting if all they can do is have him pay no tax until April.

If it is relevant, he is moving to a different branch, with a different payroll person - could that trigger something?

I assume he gave his employer his P45 when he joined the company? If so then he needs to say to the payroll dept that it's unacceptable that he's still on an emergency tax code and they need to pull their finger out. Don't confuse the issue by talking about the overpaid tax. That will get sorted out automatically if his tax code is right or he can sort it with the tax office after the end of the tax year.

Once the correct code is applied he should get all the tax back in his pay in one lump sum - as long as it goes through in this tax year (ends 5 April).
Has he received his copy of his coding notice from HMRC? If not then it hasn't been issued and he should ask them to reissue it.
Has his employer received their copy? Again ask HMRC to reissue.
If payroll have received the correct code then hit the bloody roof, it is a case of putting a code into a software programme and takes minutes (seconds) to do.

When the tax code is sorted, he will get the full amount due to him. As he's a non-taxpayer, it will be a refund, rather than just a reduction in the tax he pays (as he won't pay any)

He should chase the payroll department hard to get this sorted (by email or in writing, copied to their boss often helps focus the mind of the inefficient, )

That's not correct, ChasingSquirrels. He won't necessarily get it all back in one lump sum. He will pay no tax each month until the overpayment is cleared.

nocake - as far as I know, he will pay no (or very little) tax even when the overpayment is cleared. He only earns £500 a month, give or take a few pounds for overtime etc.

If it is the lump sum option, does it have to come through in a payslip, or can it be an extra payment? It is one of the largest companies in the country - a supermarket chain.

Get onto the payroll dept again and keep doing it. Make it less hassle to do it than to keep taking calls from you.
Make sure his previous P45 has also gone to the payroll dept.

I keep telling him to join a union. I know they wouldn't be able to help with an ongoing issue, but surely a union rep breathing down their necks would get stuff like this sorted?

He's trying to get a promotion (higher hourly rate and almost full time hours, as well as a better job in general) so he doesn't want to seem too awkward if nothing can be done. If something can be done, though, he will just have to be awkward about it.

Payday is the 11th of the month - he can view his payslip online early. Do you think they could rush it through so he would get at least some of the money this month?

A month is a long time to wait for that kind of money.

Payroll would have already been finalised by now so the bank can transfer the payments in time - too late if the new code has not been reflected when the payslip is viewed online

:(

So, if he goes in, all guns blazing, tomorrow, what does he need to say/do to make sure that he DEFINITELY gets the money next time?

He was quite upset when he saw his payslip - he was planning on a lovely romantic meal in the place we ate on our honeymoon :(

So, will he get it in a lump sum, or does he need to wait till April?

It is correct.
He does not "pay no tax until it is all refunded", tax is cumulative in a tax year and once the correct PAYE code is applied he should get a negative tax amount on his payslip and get it repaid in one lump sum. Unless it is a new tax year, in which case he has to reclaim it from HMRC.

See HMRC emergency tax codes para

Has he received a copy of his coding notice from HMRC? And if so is it correct?

Yep, he got a copy months ago, and it would seem to be correct. He's taken it into work with him, so I can't tell you what it is.

Ok, so if has been issued to him then the company should have it.
If they haven't received their copy (or say they haven't) then he should call HMRC and ask them to reissue a copy to the employer (the employer can't, or shouldn't, amend the code on their payroll from his coding notice, they need their copy from HMRC).
If they have received it, it really is a very straight forward job to apply it.

As he has been there 9 months he presumably has very little additional income in this tax year, and assuming no work benefits etc then on £500pm he shouldn't be paying any tax.

If they have it, and in view of the timescales, I would be pushing for them to recalculate the current month payroll with the correct code and make an additional payment to correct the position.

Just a thought, he hasn't got underpaid tax from previous years which is being paid through his code has he?
You need to look at the breakdown of the code, a standard code for the current tax year would be 647L - if it isn't that he needs to understand why and how that impacts on the current tax he is paying.

He got a refund a few months ago for last years overpaid tax (he seems to have bad luck with these things) - it was only about £100, but that shows that he can't owe any.

So, do you think a big company has the capacity to make an extra payment? DH seems to think it is impossible, but tbh he is a bit defeatist about this whole thing now.

Another thought - do we have to declare the repayment for benefits purposes? I was assuming so, but then it occurred to me that they have probably worked out the benefits based on what he should be bringing home, after the correct amount of tax, so this is more of a catch up to where we should be.

This happened to me. He needs to get HMRC to send a new coding notice to his employer- he will get a copy as well. He should keep chasing the payroll dept to make sure they have it.

I finally got 900 quid paid back last month as a lump sum in my payslip. Once he's on the right tax code he should get it automatically.