What is the best way to contact the UK tax office?

Question

one if my staff was previously selfemployed, he was therefore paying NI continutions directly to the inland revenue. He is now in fulltime employment, and therefore is also paying NI contributions, as a deduction from his paycheck. He needs to contact the tax office to have his status of self-employed changed to employed, so as to avoid being charged twice for NI contributions. He has been trying to contact them by phone, but they are constantly engaged, or the phone rings untill it cuts off. I tried to contact them by E-mail, their response was not too helpfull, they said the E-mail service was for guidance only, and that for this problem he must call the tax office.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with them, what is the best number to call, since the numbers on all of his letters are too busy to get through on.

Answer 1

There is no point in him ringing the tax office as they would want this type of information in writing. He should write to his tax office and advise them that his self employment has ceased and should also cancel the Direct Debit for his NIC's. He would need to do a final self assessment at the end of the year.

Answer 2

Phone them.  They're very helpful and will do their best to talk you through all the issues. Your employee should ring them on 0845 302 1479.

Of course, if you don't have a P45 for a new member of staff, you should complete a P46 which will notify the Inland Revenue that the person is now employed and on PAYE, which should kick stuff off anyway.

Also, if overpayments are made, they will be automatically refunded after the end of the tax year through PAYE too I think, so it will sort itself eventually.