PAYE worker underpaid Tax over the last 2 years

Okay so my wife is a teacher and I work in the private sector for slightly better than minimum wage.We are married 3 years and after we got married we switched our tax credits so that my wife gets any of my left over credits for the year.

This was all fine until about 2 months ago when my wife suddenly started paying an extra €200 a fortnight in tax with no explanation.She rang the tax office and was told it was because she took extra maternity leave (this didn't hapen,she gave birth last August and was back to work at the end of February).She sorted this out and they said it would be fixed up but still her wages were short.So she sends them a letter with tax credit certs (of which we both were receiving a new cert almost weekly at one stage) and payslips and they admitted they made a mistake and said they'd look into the last few years.

So today my wife gets a call to say that my employer messed up my tax in 2012 and someone (I'm assuming it's the tax office or the Department of Education) messed up hers in 2013.We now owe an additional €1200 instead of getting the €800 she is down back.

Now this sucks but if it's correct and we underpaid tax I know we're laible and have to repay it,I accept that.However I want to be sure it is correct and seeing as there have been so many foul ups already I'm unwilling to just take their word (after all it took extensive prodding from us for them to investigate this properly at all).Can I get them to send me documentation of everything we paid over the relevant years and get someone who understands the tax system to look at it,also what kind of person should I be looking for,an accountant I presume?

Thanks for any advice.

Yes, any half-decent accountant working in practice will be able to very quickly (I mean minutes not hours, as long as you furnish all the relevant paperwork) work it out for you.

To be honest though, it's unlikely to be wrong, as the figures on the balancing statements are calculated automatically - unless the details of your/your wife's taxable pay or tax paid are somehow wrong.

If it transpires you do owe the money, you should ask Revenue to collect it by reducing your respective tax credits over the next couple of years, or as long a period as they are willing to.

Great so do I just give an accountant all our payslips for the last 3 years,how do I find out what the revenue are basing their claims on.Have you any idea why it took them so long to realise what happened,it completely messes us up as things are tight enough without this.

Finally what do I say to my employer,I need to be sure this won't happen again and I know there would be consequences if I messed up like this on them.

If you have the P60s for each year then you can check it yourself.

Use Deloitte.ie/tc you should qualify for the married persons credit and the PAYE tax credit x 2.

Maternity benefit is taxable since 1 July 2013 did the department continue to pay her?

They paid her a reduced amount and her maternity benefit topped her wages up so that they were the same as usual.

So today my wife gets a call to say that my employer messed up my tax in 2012 and someone (I'm assuming it's the tax office or the Department of Education) messed up hers in 2013.We now owe an additional €1200 instead of getting the €800 she is down back.

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I suggest that you could do the following:
1)Firstly ask the Revenue to provide in writing their tax calculations for the 2 years and also ask them to give you writing confirmation as to what mistake your employer made in 2012 and what mistake the Dept. of Education made in 2013. They should be able to tell you precisely how they believe the original calculation by you employers were incorrect, e.g. they applied wrong tax credit.

2) You should then go to your respective employers and ask them to look into it. They have accountants etc. who should be able to assist you.

3) I fully agree with Joe_90, you could check it yourself online.

Thanks,that's really helpful.I'll dig out the P60's today and check them first.

Okay so assuming I've filled out the form correctly the link supplied tells me that jointly we should be taking home €1078 each week.This week is a good one to compare as I just got paid for 2 weeks holidays so the hours are a perfect working week whereas normally I can work anywhere between 34-45 hours a week depending on the time of year.

So my wife took home €1400.51 for the last 2 weeks and I got €636.16,that works out at €1018.35 per week jointly.How accurate is that link,should I be concerned that we seem to be getting far less than we should,over a year that would cost us €3000 if it's correct.

How did the prior two years work out for you.

It will prove difficult to get an exact figure on your weekly pay when comparing it to an annual figure because your wages go up and down.

Tax works on a cumulative basis so depends on earnings to date.

I'll need to find those P60's before I can work out the other years,have to wait for my wife to get home to see where she put them.

Dazed&dizzy said:

Okay so assuming I've filled out the form correctly the link supplied tells me that jointly we should be taking home €1078 each week.This week is a good one to compare as I just got paid for 2 weeks holidays so the hours are a perfect working week whereas normally I can work anywhere between 34-45 hours a week depending on the time of year.

So my wife took home €1400.51 for the last 2 weeks and I got €636.16,that works out at €1018.35 per week jointly.How accurate is that link,should I be concerned that we seem to be getting far less than we should,over a year that would cost us €3000 if it's correct.

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Don't forget that your wife, if she is in the public sector, also has deductions for USC, PRSI, pension, pension levy and possibly Union subs. You need to look at her payslips to see what deductions are tax and what deductions are non-tax.

Okay thanks for all the advice everyone.It looks like when we got married and asked to be jointly assessed, the revenue transferred my personal tax credit to my wife but my employer still processed my wages as if I still had that credit.I don't know who's at fault but it doesn't really matter as we're still going to have to repay it.I will get an accountant to have a check on everything next week just in case.