PAYE Advice

rn.andyb

I had been working part time for a company for a little over a year when at the end of September I decided to leave to focus on my college work. All was well at the time I left and they asked if I would come back for Christmas week as a temp, I agreed.

After working over Christmas my payslip arrived in the post but to my surprise I had paid PAYE on just under 50% of my wages.

I have been calling the company and the tax office trying to figure out what had gone wrong. It turned out that because the company had been taken over shortly before I left, I had technically worked for two employers, same company under the old name and the new.

From what I can understand this is an absolute mess, because the lines get blurred on paperwork. My P45 form says that I worked for the new employer for Christmas week but that I had earned my total earning from the first of January under both employers.

Now while I had been paying PAYE on a weekly bases while I was there under the old name, when I went back under the new name there was no record of me paying any PAYE because it was all under the old name.

What I have been told is that I have to wait a month for the company to send a form (I think she said P25) to the tax office, to state my earnings and my tax under both employers as one company. After which I can then request a balance statement and a refund from the tax office.

This seems like a massively flawed system.

Is there anything I can do, is there a loophole that the company should pay me and have to wait for the tax office refund?

It seems terribly unfair and I would really appreciate some advice on where I stand.

relax carry on

rn.andyb wrote: »

I had been working part time for a company for a little over a year when at the end of September I decided to leave to focus on my college work. All was well at the time I left and they asked if I would come back for Christmas week as a temp, I agreed.

After working over Christmas my payslip arrived in the post but to my surprise I had paid PAYE on just under 50% of my wages.

I have been calling the company and the tax office trying to figure out what had gone wrong. It turned out that because the company had been taken over shortly before I left, I had technically worked for two employers, same company under the old name and the new.

From what I can understand this is an absolute mess, because the lines get blurred on paperwork. My P45 form says that I worked for the new employer for Christmas week but that I had earned my total earning from the first of January under both employers.

Now while I had been paying PAYE on a weekly bases while I was there under the old name, when I went back under the new name there was no record of me paying any PAYE because it was all under the old name.

What I have been told is that I have to wait a month for the company to send a form (I think she said P25) to the tax office, to state my earnings and my tax under both employers as one company. After which I can then request a balance statement and a refund from the tax office.

This seems like a massively flawed system.

Is there anything I can do, is there a loophole that the company should pay me and have to wait for the tax office refund?

It seems terribly unfair and I would really appreciate some advice on where I stand.

It is a bit unfair when you are caught up in it but it works most of the time without incident.
You got caught out in two different ways. First the change over from one company to the next. Your employer should have informed Revenue the day you started to get you registered correctly for taxation purposes.
Second December is always difficult month to get things sorted with PAYE as tax credit certs stop issuing around the second week due to 31st December being the end of the tax year.

Waiting for your employer to file their P35 is the correct thing to do but you may be able to get round that. If you have your very final payslip/p45 from the old employer and your final payslip from your new employer relating to 2011, take them to your local Revenue public office and explain your situation. You might get round it that way.