Tax Credits:How much "personal information" does employer get from revenue

I'm aware that an employer receives documentation from revenue - telling them how much tax to deduct etc - based on information submitted by employee to revenue.

Revenue site says: "We give your employer only the information needed to calculate the tax you pay. All other personal information you give Revenue remains confidential between you and Revenue."

However, can anyone clarify/elaborate on that?:
What exactly is sent to Employer by revenue about an individual?
I.E. Are they given a detailed itemised breakdown of the tax credits of an employee. OR simply given an overall tax credit in the form of a sum for an employee.

It seems unnecessary that employer would to know this info,as all they really need to know is the cumulative figure in money terms that is a tax credit for an individual, without needing to know the actual type of tax credit(s) that person has applied for/been granted - as the type of credits provide info to employer about an individuals personal life (eg: broke up with partner etc?

Employers only receive the actual figure and never the breakdown of the tax credit figure.

In fairness to Revenue they are absolute sticklers about this. I have rang them 2-3 times when an employee has queried their tax credits and wanted me to query on their behalf because I would know about it and Revenue would absolutely not speak to me about it under any circumstances and would only deal with the taxpayer themselves.

We had an employee who made a large tax deductible investment, which resulted in a refund of circa 6k on top of their monthly salary.

Employer wanted to know what led to this refund and was promptly told to MYOB.

For privacy reasons I would never give a P45 to a new employer. I would always send it to Revenue and ask them to issue a new cert to the next employer. That way I could keep my previous salary private.

Time said:

For privacy reasons I would never give a P45 to a new employer. I would always send it to Revenue and ask them to issue a new cert to the next employer. That way I could keep my previous salary private.

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But when the new cert comes out it contains previous pay details anyway so that your tax credits etc can be kept on a cumulative basis

DB74 said:

Employers only receive the actual figure and never the breakdown of the tax credit figure.

In fairness to Revenue they are absolute sticklers about this. I have rang them 2-3 times when an employee has queried their tax credits and wanted me to query on their behalf because I would know about it and Revenue would absolutely not speak to me about it under any circumstances and would only deal with the taxpayer themselves.

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Ah thank you for clarifying - it seems you have an insight to this - it's good to know that an employer, or indeed a payroll person with a penchant for gossip - would not get the details of the credits and therefore be able to deduce personal life circumstances of any individual.

I had a slightly prying email from payroll person when my credits changed, asking was the change correct..I simply said the change is correct, so can she apply it.

It's good to know she doesn't know what new credit has been applied in my circumstances.

DB74 said:

But when the new cert comes out it contains previous pay details anyway so that your tax credits etc can be kept on a cumulative basis

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Nope.

It goes on week 1/month 1 for the remainder of the year.

dystopia said:

I had a slightly prying email from payroll person when my credits changed, asking was the change correct..I simply said the change is correct, so can she apply it.

It's good to know she doesn't know what new credit has been applied in my circumstances.

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whenever I get new tax cert for employee I usually just check with them to ensure they are aware that one has been issued. I couldn't care less why its been issued though -

Time said:

Nope.

It goes on week 1/month 1 for the remainder of the year.

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Maybe the tax cert with the previous wage figures only comes out if you have given the new employer a P45 and if you haven't then you get a Week 1 / Month 1 one.

That would make more sense in fairness.