Tax Office Error - Onus on employee to pay?

I submitted a rent relief application to the Tax office and called today to find out if had been processed.
During the course of the conversation I was informed that I did not pay a substantial amount of tax in the previous tax year, someone will call me to give me more details on this later and they took a contact number but so far I have been told that the error was made by the tax office and they are reviewing how this happened and approx 5,500EUR is owed in taxes which I will have to pay.
When I came off emergency tax in Oct 2008 after starting a new job in July 2008 I did query my pay with our Accounts Dept as it did not seem right to me but he advised that it was correct and based on the information provided by the tax office. As the error was made by the tax office, can I challenge this or is there anything that I can do?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

quandry2008 said:

I submitted a rent relief application to the Tax office and called today to find out if had been processed.
During the course of the conversation I was informed that I did not pay a substantial amount of tax in the previous tax year, someone will call me to give me more details on this later and they took a contact number but so far I have been told that the error was made by the tax office and they are reviewing how this happened and approx 5,500EUR is owed in taxes which I will have to pay.

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Even if they made a mistake you may still be liable for the shortfall in any tax payments. However they should facilitate you in collecting this in some way that suits you (e.g. through adjustments to your tax credits over a period of time rather than in a lump sum). If they did make a mistake and you are not happy with this or how they have handled matters since then you could make a complaint:

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When I came off emergency tax in Oct 2008 after starting a new job in July 2008 I did query my pay with our Accounts Dept as it did not seem right to me but he advised that it was correct and based on the information provided by the tax office. As the error was made by the tax office, can I challenge this or is there anything that I can do?

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Sounds to me like the error could have been on your/your employer's part in assuming that things were correct when they were not? Maybe you can clarify exactly how you consider this to be a Revenue error?

The person I spoke to from the tax office advised that an error had been made by the tax office. He also told me that they were doing an internal review to find out how this error occured.

ClubMan said:

Sounds to me like the error could have been on your/your employer's part in assuming that things were correct when they were not?

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Its not up to an employer to make any judgement on the veracity or otherwise of personal PAYE information provided by the tax office. Anyway, its impossible for an employer to do so as they are not privy to an employee's personal data including entitlement to credits etc.

ubiquitous said:

Its not up to an employer to make any judgement on the veracity or otherwise of personal PAYE information provided by the tax office. Anyway, its impossible for an employer to do so as they are not privy to an employee's personal data including entitlement to credits etc.

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Sorry - I'm not clear. Are you agreeing with the gist of my post or not?

I'm just clarifying your comment...

"Sounds to me like the error could have been on your/your employer's part in assuming that things were correct when they were not?"

...by pointing out that an employer has no option but assume that the information given by the tax office is correct.

OK - thanks. Most employers will be very reluctant to make any judgement call on the accuracy or otherwise of an employee's tax details at least in my experience. For the reasons that you mention (i.e. they don't have access to all relevant details by default) and because they are not authorised to dispense tax advice. That's certainly my experience anyway!

ubiquitous said:

Its not up to an employer to make any judgement on the veracity or otherwise of personal PAYE information provided by the tax office. Anyway, its impossible for an employer to do so as they are not privy to an employee's personal data including entitlement to credits etc.

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That is true, but in my personal experience only about twice in the last ten years have they not made a fubar in my tax returns of one sort or another. Most of these are basic keying errors, another time they seem to have scanned in some of someone else’s F12 pages as mine and when the euro came in they converted some of my tax allowances twice. So much for automated batch processes.
They biggest was adding over £40k extra to my TFA. Decimal points are not their strongest point. I found another mistake just last week when filling in Form 12 for 2007, where they transposed two digits in my pension contribution, it will end up costing me an extra 100 euro. Such is life in the civil service.
I have see mistakes of around half a million in one tax cert, good going when the person involved was on just above min wages.

In 20+ years working I have never had a mistake on my tax credits or other Revenue documents other than where I had not updated them on relevant events or changes in circumstances affecting tax issues. I have had a few payroll mistakes with different employers though.

the tax office does make mistakes - but there is a catch-all phrase on the tax credit statement which is sent out to everyone at the start of the year to the effect that this statement is issued to the best of their knowledge and any mistakes in the statement should be receified immediately. they put the onus back on the employee to know actactly what they are entitled to and what their credits/cut offs should be. They then also leave it entirely in the employees hands if the employer should make a mistake, it is the responsibility of the employee to ensure their tax affairs are in order and up to date. So in the case where payroll have processed a pay but incorrectly input the figures, it is the employees responsibility to make sure it is correct.

An employer must use the tax statement it receives for each individual, even if it appears (in the employer's opinion) to be incorrect. An employer has no way of knowing what any individual's tax agreements with the tax office are.

ClubMan said:

In 20+ years working I have never had a mistake on my tax credits or other Revenue documents other than where I had not updated them on relevant events or changes in circumstances affecting tax issues. I have had a few payroll mistakes with different employers though.

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Are you sure there were no errors, how do you know there were no errors, you may have missed them. I have received revenue analysis that was incorrect, I told them and they corrected it. Some of them are unable to calculate tax and I remember a long time ago there was an unusual calculation for mortgage relief brought in and they printed out a calculation sheet that was incorrect, I know because I went in the tax office to try and figure it out (as it didn't make sense to me) and they said their documentation was incorrect.

Bronte said:

Are you sure there were no errors, how do you know there were no errors, you may have missed them.

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Because I have always checked my statements of tax credits/TFAs, P60s, P45s, payslips etc. and kept Revenue up to date with any relevant changes in my circumstances.

I have received revenue analysis that was incorrect, I told them and they corrected it.

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I have received bogey information from Revenue staff though - e.g. being told that lumps sum pension contributions by a PAYE worker before October 31st could not be set against the previous year's earnings for tax relief. But I stood my ground and they checked and admitted their mistake.

ClubMan said:

I have received bogey information from Revenue staff though

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Revenue, like many other bodies do issue incorrect information from time to time. I have, over the years have been told some quite unbelievable things from calls to Revenue. Unfortunately there are many people who think that what appears is on their tax documents is correct. Some information will only be updated if the tax payer tells Revenue about any changes as there are certain areas where they could not be expected to know otherwise, such as granting dependent relative relief long after the taxpayers dependent relative has passed on. However there is also great scope for error in the system if the taxpayer does not keep an eagle eye on the basic computations. As ClubMan also said, one should check statements of tax credits/TFAs, P60s, P45s, payslips etc. and keep Revenue up to date with any relevant changes in circumstances.

Unpaid PAYE tax 2007

Hi,
I posted a query in early Sept but I have now have all the information and would like to ask another question. I was informed in September 2008 that I had a paye tax shortfall in 2007 of over 5000EUR. The revenue have reviewed this and advised the following: When I started a new job in July 2007 my new employer received the tax credits week 1 which did not take into account my tax credits from my previous job. The revenue updated their online system to show this information at the end of August 07 but my employer did not update their system so for the remainder of the year I was unsing the incorrect tax credits and therefore did not pay enough tax. I provided my employer with my P45 in August but I have been advised by the Finance dept that they have no record of this. I heard that there was a change in legislation regarding the taxation in benefits with effect from 1 January 2004 and it is the responsibility of the Company to ensure that the correct tax is applied, does this also affect paye? I am wondering does my company have any responsibiltiy to pay or partly pay the 5000EUR or is this onus totally on the employee to pay the full amount?
Thanks in advance.

Re: Unpaid PAYE tax 2007

Duplicated/related threads merged.

Re: Unpaid PAYE tax 2007

quandry2008 said:

[I am wondering does my company have any responsibiltiy to pay or partly pay the 5000EUR or is this onus totally on the employee to pay the full amount?

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It is your tax liability. It is your responsibility to pay it.

ps I've only noticed that this query is a duplicate of a query you posted last month. Please observe the posting guidelines.

Re: Unpaid PAYE tax 2007

quandry2008 said:

I heard that there was a change in legislation regarding the taxation in benefits with effect from 1 January 2004 and it is the responsibility of the Company to ensure that the correct tax is applied, does this also affect paye?

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Doubt it.

I am wondering does my company have any responsibiltiy to pay or partly pay the 5000EUR or is this onus totally on the employee to pay the full amount?
Thanks in advance.

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Ditto. I think the onus is on you to spot such issues earlier and deal with them. Perhaps your employer might be amenable to some sort of discretionary help with this bill? Remember that you can always ask Revenue to collect any outstanding tax liabilities gradually through a negative adjustment to your tax credits rather than in one lump sum.