Hugely Incorrect p60 returned by employer

red101

My employer issued staff with p60 in June of this year. Mine was not with the initial lot so I requested it and was palmed off with some excuse or another. After a month of repeatedly asking for it, a copy was finally sent to me. Unfortunately the amount stated as gross income is half what I actually got paid, so considerably less tax paid also. I queried this but was told by my boss he didn't understand 'what all that stuff meant' so I had to call our accountant. Who didn't answer my calls or texts until I informed him by text I was going to pursue it with revenue at which point he contacted me to say there had been some virus on the computer which caused it.

I waited a few weeks and still no joy, eventually my boss made a few more vague excuses and eventually a polite feck off. At this point owing to several other issues in the workplace, my relationship with employer has deteriorated and I don't feel I can approach about this anymore. The revenue initially were really unhelpful and told me there was nothing they could do as it was up to the employer to return the correct p35L. Eventually I got a guy who was more helpful, I sent him in my final weeks payslips from last year to show correct earnings and the incorrect p60. He has sent letters to employer querying it but they are not responding. There is not an awful lot else he can do apparently:(

I got married last year and my wife was subsequently out of work for 6 months, I just want to get the correct assessment based on my earnings and claim any tax back as l am entitled to. I cannot do this unless the correct amount is filed with revenue and there is a considerable difference in the tax paid in p60. I am not a trouble maker and am a very conscientious employee, but this situation has made me very angry and I feel I have nowhere else to turn to now. That I just have to accept this?

Anyway, sorry for the long post but it's better to have the full picture, I wonder has anyone had a similar experience and how did they deal with it?

2moreMinutes

It sounds like your employer was deducting tax from your weekly pay as he should have been but he then failed to pay this over to the Revenue during the year. It is likely that he was left with a large liability at the end of the year which led him to try to cut corners and so he returned an incorrect wage for you which meant that he had a smaller payment to make along with his P35.

Is any of this your fault? No

It is an employers responsibility to administer the PAYE system correctly on his employees. To be honest, I am slightly surprised that you have received little to no help from the Revenue. They willl likely have written to him and will follow up this correspondence to get to the bottom of the matter.

I'm not sure from your post whether you are still in employment with the employer in question (think you are).
Depending on your relationship with the employer, you can mention that you are losing out on getting a tax refund because he returned the wrong figures. (i.e. he is stealing from you)

If he still maintains that it was his accountant and not him that prepared these figures, throw in a reference to the National Employment Rights Agency (NERA) and his obligations towards employees under the Payment of Wages Act 1991.

angelfire9

If you have payslips from Nov/Dec 2009 get them together with your P60 and take a trip down to Revenue and tell them to sort it out and believe me they will!
Nothing like the threat of a tax audit to get an employer going

And as a matter of interest your employer submits your P35 details to revenue in February there is NO REASON that i can think of that the P60's weren't done in feb/mar as well

Sounds a bit fishy to me!

red101

Firstly, Thanks to you both for replying to my post, appreciate it.

2moreminutes; I still work there, but there have been a number of issues in recent times concerning other staff that have led to an uneasy atmosphere. I don not have any relationship to speak of with my employer any more,which is sad as we were very close at one stage, I cannot approach him regarding this issue. I was bullied before for pursuing another legal entitlement and since then have been reluctant to confront them as I found them unreasonable and aggressive. Also I have had a wife out of work and didn't want to risk my own employment; I am happy where I work apart from the obvious. I know for sure if I start quoting Employment Law I will really get grief from them.

Angelfire; I have already sent off payslips to revenue with false p60 included, I have no doubt about what they were up to. I am positive they were pulling a fast one with the tax paid. I have also mentioned previous years that they are very slow to give us these forms, in fact another year I have is identical in gross income to the previous year to the cent, I dont receive a salary so my income is variable based on commission. The likelihood of my wages ever being identical is very rare.

I gave them ample oportunity to deal with this but had to ring revenue in the end. The woman who dealt with me was really awful, shouted at me 'What are we supposed to do about it?' Then under pressure she just put me through to the Employers section of the Revenue just to get rid of me, they put me back on to the Paye section and I luckily got a very decent guy who has also given me his direct line. He has received my forms and payslips a month ago and I saw the Revenue letter with the query arrive about three weeks ago. Nothing was said to me by my employer but the attitude has disimproved even further. The chap from Revenue said he would call me when he hears back from them but no word yet. it's just really disappointing to see this attitude with employers in Ireland. I am a hard worker and have been very loyal and this is how I get treated..

Again, thanks for your feedback, I will try the Revenue guy again, but even he said there was a limited amount he could do. He passed on the query to the case management section of revenue but explained that they are totally snowed under and it could take a long time for them to get to it..I stupidly always thought that there would be a 'hotline' for this kind of stuff, to report fraud or tax evasion..

2moreMinutes

It is a difficult issue to resolve as it appears that your employer does not care at all that he is stealing from you.

I would persist with the Revenue and would not take No for an answer when you contact them regularly. Ring them every week and get a contact name for every conversation you have and make notes on each conversation including if they are being unhelpful.

You could consider ringing NERA to see what they say about the situation.

Apologies there is not a simple answer to this and I appreciate your concerns for approaching your employer in what may come across to him as an aggressive mode.

Hopefully things work out for you. (Keep this thread updated or PM me if you get any update - I'm nosy like that!)

tap28

red101 wrote: »

Angelfire; I have already sent off payslips to revenue with false p60 included, I have no doubt about what they were up to. I am positive they were pulling a fast one with the tax paid. I have also mentioned previous years that they are very slow to give us these forms, in fact another year I have is identical in gross income to the previous year to the cent, I dont receive a salary so my income is variable based on commission. The likelihood of my wages ever being identical is very rare.

Again, thanks for your feedback, I will try the Revenue guy again, but even he said there was a limited amount he could do. He passed on the query to the case management section of revenue but explained that they are totally snowed under and it could take a long time for them to get to it..I stupidly always thought that there would be a 'hotline' for this kind of stuff, to report fraud or tax evasion..

Do you know what section the person in Revenue works in?

You really want to talk to the Joint Investigation Officer, of you distric,t about this. More than likely it not just you this is happening to and he/she would be very interested in this kind of thing.

There kinda is a "hotline" for this stuff but the simple answer is there is so much of it going on.

By the was a Revenue audit/enquiry/investigation rarely gets sorted in a few weeks.

Tap