A client has received a letter regarding one of their employees saying that they are due a potential refund of NIC's.
I have asked the client to check their payroll records for the full amount of NIC for the tax year 2011/2012 which this letter corresponds to. The amount they came back with is the amount of refund HMRC says this employee is due back.
The employees date of birth doesn't indicate that he reached state pension age at that time.
Any ideas why he would be due a full refund of his NIC's?
It also says on the back:
Please tick one of these boxes-
The employee has received the refund due to them
No refund is due to the employee, the amended P14 was sent to correct a clerical error
I have not refunded the NIC's. I understand that I will be issued with a bill for the refund amount to allow the refund to be made directly to the employee
I would have thought that it was HMRC that would need to pay back a refund and not the employer as the employer would have already paid the NIC's over to HMRC with each PAYE payment? Or am I wrong?
The telephone number provided on the letter is dead however when I rang HMRC to check the letter was legitimate they said it was.
I'm just a bit confused now as is the client. As we only do the P35 at year end and the client does their own payroll, should the client maybe write to HMRC to find out more?
The implication of the "amended P14" comment in the letter is that the possible refund is coming about because someone has filed an amended P14 for that employee for 11/12. They may not have *meant* to adjust the NICs to zero but it sounds as if that is exactly what they did.
At the moment HMRC isn't even sure if any refund is due, indeed no refund is due in case (1) (already received) or case (2) (report of deduction was clerical error)
I have found that in the P35, there was a duplication of this employee. Also, two P60's were printed off. Both had the same surname but different first names of this employee, different addresses and the same National Insurance number. All figures are the same.
Could it be that the P14 was amended to cancel out the duplication? Or will this national insurance number have had twice as much national insurance deducted?
If he is due a refund, is it the emplyer or HMRC that needs to refund it? As the letter makes out the employee has to.
It sounds like the HMRC have realised there is a duplication and wants to find out what the employer intends to do. The options are:
1. The employee has received the refund due to them
or 2. No refund is due to the employee, the amended P14 was sent to correct a clerical error
or 3. I have not refunded the NIC's. I understand that I will be issued with a bill for the refund amount to allow the refund to be made directly to the employee
in order to correct the error.
HMRC will not amend the P14. The employeer has to and also amend the P35 accordingly.
