SACM8025 | Making Enquiries into Claims: PAYE Coding and Claims to Relief

Claims made in order to amend a PAYE coding are provisional claims even though there may be no doubt about the entitlement to the relief or allowance in question.

The provisional nature of these claims means that they need not be made in a return and need not be quantified as with other claims. (Section 42(3)).

PAYE Taxpayers who complete SA returns

These taxpayers will repeat the claim in the return for the year in question and the right of enquiry under S9A will apply. Because of the provisional nature of these PAYE claims we do not make enquiries into them outside a return.

The fact that the claim is provisional in nature means that it does not determine the final liability for the year of assessment. The final claim is made when the return is completed and so it will be sufficient to enquire into the return, under S9A, without the need for a separate enquiry into the provisional claim.

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PAYE taxpayers who do not complete SA returns

In such cases, any enquiry will usually be made on receipt of the stand-alone claim. Under the PAYE regulations an inspector has the power (subject to a right of objection and appeal given to the employee by those regulations) to determine the make up of a code number. In order to allow for this, paragraph 4(1A) of Schedule 1A says that an officer may (not must) give effect to an in-year claim in the PAYE coding as soon as is practical. The code number would be amended, if possible, once the enquiry was concluded.