Large underpayment of tax

Hi all.
My wife and I are jointly assessed for tax purposes, and when I looked at our statement of liability, it says we owe a few thousand in unpaid tax. I did the math, and it looks as though my company overcalculated my tax by a few hundred, but my wifes company undercalculated it by a few thousand. She is on maternity leave, and received some TWSS early in the year, and best I can see they didn't calculate tax on either of these, and only calculated tax on what the company paid her.

Back when the TWSS was being utilised, she did sign something with her company to say they'd not pay her the entirety of it, so she wouldn't be liable for tax (ie. she wouldn't earn more money while on TWSS than she'd earn as normal). Does that sound legit (i've vague on the details, but it's all written down and signed by both parties)? Could it be a case where her company would cover the unpaid TWSS tax bill? As for the untaxed (from what I can see) DSP maternity benefit that may be an error.

To add to all this, she just got her January payslip and it includes an "excess tax rebate"! ??? What's going on here!?

I believe DSP maternity benefit isn't usually taxed at source by an employer unless your a public sector worker, so that may be contributing to the tax bill. For TWSS I'm not sure, but I've heard of some employers agreeing to pay the tax bill accrued due to it that employees are now discovering.

Coldwarrior said:

I believe DSP maternity benefit isn't usually taxed at source by an employer unless your a public sector worker, so that may be contributing to the tax bill. For TWSS I'm not sure, but I've heard of some employers agreeing to pay the tax bill accrued due to it that employees are now discovering.

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Thanks! First I heard of DSP maternity benefit (and illness benefit FYI) not being taxed at source. Seems cumbersome to leave it up to the employee (who has a new baby to care for) to handle that. DSP maternity benefit is being paid to her employer, who then tops her up and pays her. I'd understand if it was directly paid to her account, but it aint.

Is parents leave taxable so? I would of got some (mind you it's very small) direct to my account.

Black_Knight said:

Thanks! First I heard of DSP maternity benefit (and illness benefit FYI) not being taxed at source. Seems cumbersome to leave it up to the employee (who has a new baby to care for) to handle that. DSP maternity benefit is being paid to her employer, who then tops her up and pays her. I'd understand if it was directly paid to her account, but it aint.

Is parents leave taxable so? I would of got some (mind you it's very small) direct to my account.

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Agreed, it'd be much handier if the employer handled the tax, especially in the case you describe. Parent's leave is treated the same I'm afraid, I had forgotten that and expected a tax refund this month but it now appears I owe a small amount due to parent's leave.

Article in the IT today explaining what probably happened with your wife's TWSS