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Incorrect notices from HMRC

HM Revenue & Customs has been sending out incorrect tax code notices for 2010/11, drawing fire from the Opposition, and concern among payroll managers.

As the Chartered Institute of Taxation warned that taxpayers could be asked to pay up to £108 a month too much, Liberal Democrat spokesman Vince Cable told Payroll World: ‘At a time when families up and down the country are feeling the pinch it is totally unacceptable that the tax man will take more from them than they should be paying. It is yet another in a long line of expensive IT projects that have not delivered.’

Julia Abbotts, payroll and benefits officer at Taylor Wessing, raised the alarm via a Linked-In group. She said: ‘Over the last few months we have been receiving a number of P6s for employees who have already left – some time ago in most cases. We send our P46s by EDI so assumed the HMRC's systems would be updated automatically.

‘We have now also started to receive SL1 notices for employees who have already paid back their loans in full through the payroll and have previously been issued with a stop notice from the HMRC. This is causing extra work for the payroll department as well as hardship for the employees who now have to organise a refund for the student loan company.

A few days after the first post, Ms Abbotts added: ‘I spoke to the employers helpline again last Friday [22nd Jan 10] they said that, regarding the SL1s, I am doing the correct thing in processing them and restarting the deductions. She said there is nothing they can do and it is probably down to the student loan company not updating their information as the HMRC only informs it once a year of payment details.’

The P6 issue may be due to the fact that HMRC has not updated the P45 information on their systems correctly or quickly enough, she added. ‘Again, there is not a lot they could do - although she did suggest we could print the P6 notice, write on it that this employee no longer works here and the date of leaving, and send it back to HMRC - I don't think we would bother with that.’


26/01/10