Suddnely being taxed a hell of a lot, revenue don't know why

conti · 29-09-2015 03:08PM #1

Last month, I was put on Week 1 tax basis for no apparent reason, I'm a year in my job and have never had any abnormalities in my paycheck the whole time I've been here.

I rang revenue up on the accountant's advice, and was talking to a girl who looked at my record and couldn't find any reason for me to be on it. She gave me apology for the error and took me off it and said I would get it (a third of my wages) back with next month's paycheck.

This month, I have even more taken off me, well over a third this time. I just rang up Revenue, again someone checked my history of payments, said it was unusual that I was put on Week 1 tax, but saw that I was in fact taken off it immediately as the previous girl had done, but still I was taxed a huge amount, which she was simply unable to explain.

So where do I go from here? I'm being taxed like crazy with no explanation, Revenue don't even know what's going on. Am I to float in the purgatory of phantom taxation? My money being taken away with no valid reason as to why? Or where it's going?

I welcome any advice on this one.

goldenhoarde · 29-09-2015 03:13PM

Are you an employee or contractor?

if you're an employee get on to the payroll dept, but as you have an accountant they should be able to sort it for you. Having an accountant as an employee is odd hence the reason I ask are you a contractor?

conti · 29-09-2015 03:23PM

I'm an employee, sorry I should have pointed that out. By "accountant" I mean payroll dept.

I'm guessing it means I have to have another lean month until I see any of that money back, regardless of what happens.

Bandana boy · 29-09-2015 03:35PM

Did you dump somebody by text who works for the IRC or has connections ?

Seems odd

Kristopherus · 29-09-2015 03:49PM

conti wrote: »

I'm an employee, sorry I should have pointed that out. By "accountant" I mean payroll dept.

I'm guessing it means I have to have another lean month until I see any of that money back, regardless of what happens.

Check with Payroll if they have the latest Certificate of Tax Credits issued by Revenue after they took you off Week 1 basis. If they have, then ask them when they are implementing it.

lawred2 · 29-09-2015 03:50PM

this is a payroll issue surely

not revenue

dbran · 29-09-2015 03:53PM

Revenue usually only put people on a week one basis if there is something happening in the tax payers world such that the normal PAYE system would not operate in a correct manor. They either do not want the employer to refund tax to you, or they do not want the employer to over deduct the tax that is due. This usually happens if the revenue are made aware of additional income from another source other then your current employment.

If you are still sure that there is no reason why they would have done this then you should check that you have the correct tax credits on record from revenue and also the correct standard rate cut off.

If not, then ask why they were changed and get them to fix them to the correct amounts based on your circumstances.

Best regards

Dbran

goldenhoarde · 29-09-2015 04:06PM

Hi

Get your payslip and put in your salary * 12 for the Gross salary on January 1st (€) *: field

https://www.virtualaccountant.ie/Tools/tax2015.jsp (a url always helps)

then if you have pension contributions or any other items please enter then and then hit submit.

This will give you an idea if maybe you have been underpaying tax for the year? and now it is being clawed back from you.

Otherwise get back onto payroll and see what the issue is? as they changed you for some reason, it could have been a notification from revenue or just an error as they do happen

Do you have a login for http://www.revenue.ie/en/index.html, if so go there and you will be able to get a copy of your tax credits for this year. If not get revenue to reissue yours and then get it into payroll - before the end of month

conti · 29-09-2015 06:11PM

goldenhoarde wrote: »

Do you have a login for http://www.revenue.ie/en/index.html, if so go there and you will be able to get a copy of your tax credits for this year. If not get revenue to reissue yours and then get it into payroll - before the end of month

Had a PAYE login, just went to register for the new myaccount section that has replaced it. Even though I clicked on the to option to have my password sent via email, the last regsitration screen said it was being sent via post, for security reason. So now I have to wait up to 5 working days to get that.

I did a reply from payroll dept, this gist of which is this:

conti was on a cumulative basis and was exempt from paying USC from 1st January 2015 until 28th August 2015.

He was then put on a week 1 basis and his monthly salary in August of €**** was subjected to USC.

He was then changed by Revenue to a Cumulative Basis on 24/09/2015 and all his earning for this year 2015 were subjected to USC.

Total USC due **** - USC paid of €**** in August = USC due for September = €***

So was I not paying USC? And now I have to pay for all the previous months? Why was I exempt and now not?

Captain Chaos · 29-09-2015 06:13PM

You need to request a P21 balance form from Revenue to see your tax credits and what you owe or are owed.

chickenlicken2 · 29-09-2015 11:54PM

From the sounds of it you were marked as USC exempt when you shouldn't have been. It's either a mistake of Revenue or your payroll department. I think since revenue had you on and off a W1 basis it's on their side.

When you went on to the cumulative cert without exemption marker all your ytd income is then calculated and compared to usc paid so a huge chunk is taken then in the next payroll.

The week one basis in august meant only August salary was charged to USC. The cumulative in September meant everything from January was charged less the amount paid to date.

Revenue are the only people who can tell you why you were exempt previously. Look on the website for revenue and see if you fall or did last year fall under one of exemption criteria.

CIARAN_BOYLE · 30-09-2015 09:49AM

conti wrote: »

Had a PAYE login, just went to register for the new myaccount section that has replaced it. Even though I clicked on the to option to have my password sent via email, the last regsitration screen said it was being sent via post, for security reason. So now I have to wait up to 5 working days to get that.

I did a reply from payroll dept, this gist of which is this:

conti was on a cumulative basis and was exempt from paying USC from 1st January 2015 until 28th August 2015.

He was then put on a week 1 basis and his monthly salary in August of €**** was subjected to USC.

He was then changed by Revenue to a Cumulative Basis on 24/09/2015 and all his earning for this year 2015 were subjected to USC.

Total USC due **** - USC paid of €**** in August = USC due for September = €***

So was I not paying USC? And now I have to pay for all the previous months? Why was I exempt and now not?

The only reason you should be exempt from USC is if your annual income is less than €12,012. It sounds to me as if revenue had you down as exempt in error and put you on a w1/m1 basis of taxation in order to fix it going forward while leaving the prior correction to be collected after the year end.

conti · 30-09-2015 09:53AM

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

The only reason you should be exempt from USC is if your annual income is less than €12,012. It sounds to me as if revenue had you down as exempt in error and put you on a w1/m1 basis of taxation in order to fix it going forward while leaving the prior correction to be collected after the year end.

So in other words, they were justified in taking it off me and there's nothing I can do about it except bite the bullet and take it?

CIARAN_BOYLE · 30-09-2015 09:56AM

conti wrote: »

So in other words, they were justified in taking it off me and there's nothing I can do about it except bite the bullet and take it?

Sorry to say but it sounds like it yeah.

You main concern shouldn't be the current issue in my opinion but figuring out if this effects previous years as well.

IE Revenue marked you as exempt because you were exempt in 2013 you stayed wrongly remained marked as exempt in 2014 (and therefore owe USC for the full year) and stayed exempt through 2015.

In previous years the threshold for exemption was 10036.

goldenhoarde · 30-09-2015 09:57AM

To be exempt from USC your wages for the year need to be below - 12,012. anything above and you pay USC

Example: An individual who is earning €50,000 per year will pay the Universal Social Charge at a rate of 1.5% on the first €12,012 (which comes to €180.18), 3.5% on the next €5,564 (which comes to €194.74) and 7% on the balance of €32,424 (which comes to €2,269.68). In total this person will pay €2,644.60 per year.

Which is about 222 a month, so this means for the example wage above you owe them about 2,000 which they are now recouping as lump sums in Aug and Sept! Maybe they should have given you the option to spread the underpayment over the remaining months of the years rather than taking it over 2 months.

See here for more http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/tax/income_tax/universal_social_charge.html

seamus · 30-09-2015 10:02AM

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Sorry to say but it sounds like it yeah.

You main concern shouldn't be the current issue in my opinion but figuring out if this effects previous years as well.

IE Revenue marked you as exempt because you were exempt in 2013 you stayed wrongly remained marked as exempt in 2014 (and therefore owe USC for the full year) and stayed exempt through 2015.

In previous years the threshold for exemption was 10036.

^^
This.

Former colleague got a phone call from Revenue one day telling her that she owed them over €6k in unpaid tax from the three previous years. She queried it with the payroll department, but it had been Revenue's screw up, as they issued an incorrect tax credits statement for those years.

Revenue are reasonable about this, they won't require a full upfront payment, but you want to nip it in the bud before the tax liability stacks up.

conti · 30-09-2015 10:08AM

I started the job last year, before that I was working long-term unemployed, and sometimes working part-time with casual certs, so there's no fear of me having paid too much over the past few years.

Which is what it most annoying. I went back to education, worked my arse off and trained myself in a new skill to get this job which I'm delighted with.

When I get <SNIP> like this 2 months in a row through no fault of my own, I have to question was all that effort worth it. Coming to work today was a struggle, even though I like my job.

CIARAN_BOYLE · 30-09-2015 12:16PM

conti wrote: »

I started the job last year, before that I was working long-term unemployed, and sometimes working part-time with casual certs, so there's no fear of me having paid too much over the past few years.

Which is what it most annoying. I went back to education, worked my arse off and trained myself in a new skill to get this job which I'm delighted with.

When I get <SNIP> like this 2 months in a row through no fault of my own, I have to question was all that effort worth it. Coming to work today was a struggle, even though I like my job.

Welcome to the world. We all work our asses off and have pay taxes. Its sad for you that you had to pay your taxes in a concentrated fashion like this but thats life.

Suddnely being taxed a hell of a lot, revenue don't know why

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