Help! Revenue say I underpaid tax for my nanny

[emc]

Hello All

I employed a nanny for a very short period Sept 09-July 10 and employed the services of a nanny payroll company to sort out my nanny's tax and NI. Towards the end of last year HMRC wrote to me to say that I owed a large amount in unpaid tax for my nanny. The confusion has arisen because my nanny payroll company had asked the revenue to split my nanny's tax code (I was in a nanny share) which they failed to do for the second tax year.

Unfortunately, the revenue either ignored this or missed this and sent various tax codes to my nanny payroll company (who were acting as my agent) which my nanny payroll company ignored, assuming (they say) that they were mistakes. I now have a huge bill which I cannot pay and it's causing me sleepless nights.

I have written to the revenue twice explaining what (I think) happened - that we asked for the tax codes to be split but they were only split for the first tax year, 9/10 but not 10/11 - all very long and complicated.

Anyway, my question is do I have any redress with the payroll company? I employed them to provide a service for me - surely if they were receiving letters from the revenue with different codes they should have looked into it and told the Revenue of the mistake - isn't that what I was employing them to do? And do I have any redress with the revenue - I have the letters from the payroll compnay to the revenue requesting the split tax code etc, etc. I feel at a loss of what to do as I feel that revenue and payroll company are at fault but it will ultimately be me footing a bill for a mistake that's not my fault. Any advice, especially if you've been in this situation gratefully received. Thanks

[Saffron]

I'm not sure about your particular case, but in other instances we've had a couple a minor tax mistakes corrected retrospectively. Call Revenue Services and speak to someone directly about your case. Somewhat surprisingly,Hubbie and I have found them to be friendly and helpful in the past.

If the mistake cannot be correctly retrospectively, or you can't get anything back from the payroll company, I beleive the Revenue Servicies are obliged to offer you a payment plan which is within your financial mean. Do call and speak to them. It may not all be as bad as you fear. Best of luck.

[etta166]

Check the small print of the contract you had with the nanny payroll company, and if you need help to understand it then go the the Citizen's Advice Bureau. They are great with this kind of thing.

I would have thought the payroll company would have to take some responsibility, but if they won't you can always name and shame them on the forum to help other's avoid the same problem.