Wrong code

My client started a secondary employment. Personal allowances were of course already given against his first employment source so the new one was taxed at the basic rate (code BR).

That seems fine except that the combined earnings from both sources were well into higher rate tax so insufficient tax was deducted under PAYE. The error was repeated in the following two years and significant arrears have accrued.

My clients feels and I tend to agree that HMRC were in possession of all the information that they would require to assess his liability correctly.

My client’s belief that he was being properly taxed was further evidenced by the coding notices payslips and P60s all of which showed that HMRC were operating a PAYE code against his income sources.

He had no reason...