Have to say that PPRune has again been a great help and actually I wish I had read this thread before sending the following letter. My original P800 (received Christmas Eve) was showing an underpayment of over £3000, a quick phone call reduced this to a currently disputed total of £1800.
To be honest I have found the people at HMRC to be very helpful but the problem that the computer is clearly "saying no". My next step will be to use the information gained here to be slightly more direct in my approach.
"Many thanks for the revised P800 dated 5 Jan 2012 which shows a significant reduction in my original underpayment figure. However this is still very confusing to me, I have now requested a number of times that any underpayment amount is explained in detail to me with no real results ether by telephone or in writing.
To explain further the revised P800 dated 5 Jan 12 for the Tax Year 2009-10 clearly shows in the adjustments section a figure of £1434.80, I have no idea what this figure comprises and this is what I need to understand. I have the following questions
1. Where does this figure come from?
2. What recent information have you received to support or identify this figure?
3. If no recent information then how long have you had the information to support this figure?
4. Have you failed to act on information provided to you by me or my employer in the past resulting in this underpayment?
Having been employed since the age of 16 under the PAYE scheme I have always made every effort to pay my Tax and National Insurance correctly, I have only had 2 jobs, this one and 26 years in the armed forces. On leaving the armed forces I made every effort to avoid problems by contacting all the various tax offices and agencies to ensure that correct tax would be paid and I would not be hit with any unforeseen bills in the future.
I truly believe that I have made every reasonable effort to let you guys know exactly what was going on and informed you of every significant change in my circumstances. I also believe that by now it is reasonable for me to assume that my Tax affairs are in order and that my tax code is correct subject to annual review from my P11D.
In addition there is no doubt that this potential extra burden for the Tax Year 2012-13 is going to be a significant problem for me to deal with, in the big scheme of things it may seem like a relatively small amount however I have budgeted on the tax codes that you have provided to me and have commitments accordingly. I appreciate that you can offer different terms for payments but really I do not believe it is fair for you to claim this money after I have made the effort, unlike many others, to give you the information to get it right first time.
I’m sorry but I can’t help feeling that it is the easy targets like me, the people who happily pay tax through PAYE that you go to first instead of going after the people who have made Tax evasion an artform, I’m surrounded by them!"