Taxed heavily on last payment from previous employer

[DressDrama]

DP finished his old job on 24 May and started a new job on 29 May. Full time, PAYE in both. He is owed by old workplace: almost a whole months money; 4 days of holiday he worked rather than took; and a yearly bonus (they confirmed he was still eligible to receive the bonus as the cut off period is March and it’s received in June). 15th of the month is pay day from his old workplace and he got £31 into his account yesterday ...so something has gone wrong. Spoke to HR in previous workplace, they said to call the HMRC, HMRC (automated) said he may be on an emergency tax code and to wait until he received payslip from new job or had been with them 5 weeks before calling back.

Payslips from old workplace were electronic, so he cannot access them anymore as he’s been removed from the system. The HR worker he spoke to yesterday said she would email this last payslip to him but she hadn’t by the end of the day yesterday - hopefully it’ll come on Monday.

I’ve been emergency taxed before with a new employer and then this has been reimbursed in my next payslip - but this seems to be a cock up by old employer? As he’s only been with new place 2.5 weeks and probably won’t get first pay until 25th June or 25th July.

Any advice gratefully received!

Emergency tax is when there is no P45 to show what tax has been deducted in the current tax year ie from 6th April. It also provides the tax code for the employee.

Even though he is on emergency tax if no P45 received to date, that would have swallowed up an entire month's salary, plus bonus plus holiday pay owed.

I don't understand why the HR worker in the previous employer gave the fob-off, they should have given all the information by looking it up on their payroll system and saying what tax was paid, it will be on the payslip. How unhelpful.

Your DH needs to make the phone call, they wouldn't want to give the information to anyone but him, as there are clearly data protection issues.

Re emergency tax, what I meant was that, as the new tax year starts in April, and he left in May, being taxed as if Month 1 wasn't a big impact, unlike if it had been in Feb / March - it would have been a different situation, as it was towards the end of a tax year.

Just reread your post, the HMRC information doesn't make sense about him being on Emergency tax - it was irrelevant to the final May salary from old employer (which you were expecting to include holiday pay and bonus).

Emergency tax would only be relevant to the new employer, and only if the old employer hadn't provided a P45 to give new employer, so new employer had to use ET, which again isn't relevant if they haven't paid him yet.

The old employer hasn't paid correctly, the cock up is with them, yes.

Did the old employer give a p45 when he actually left (i.e. May). If so, they may well have used a BR tax code if this final payslip is for holiday pay/overtime, etc and then there'll be another p45 for this final payrun. It happens quite a lot when payroll doesn't know there's more pay to be paid, and just assume date of leaving is the last month in which they're paid,. HMRC rules are that further pay after P45 issued need to be a separate payroll item, not just added back onto the previous pay record because new employer has already started using data from the original p45 issued and they can't be reissued.

If they have already given him a P45 they should have used 0T, not BR. But, even using that, one month's pay shouldn't turn into £31.