PAYE90025 - taxpayer end of year: taxpayer underpayments: PAYE underpayments of £2,000 and over

Only underpayments of up to £1999.99 can be recovered through the tax code where the underpayment is from the SA balancing payment for a single year or informal calculations for one or more years have been issued and the underpayment is up to £1999.99.

Potential underpayments are not included in the £1999.99 limit and it is possible that £2000 or more can be included in a code where a potential underpayment arises. For example, where an informal calculation has been issued for CY-1 and the CY code has been reduced to include benefits in kind and a CY potential underpayment has been calculated. The CY+1 code will include the total underpayment from CY-1 and CY. See example below

Informal calculation underpayment CY-1£1850.00
Potential underpayment CY£350.00
Total underpayment coded CY+1£2200.00


Where an actual underpayment of £2000 or more arises, the PAYE Regulations state that the underpayment must not be collected through the tax code. The underpayment should be collected through SA unless a direct voluntary payment is made. This applies whether the underpayment covers one or more years. An SA return will need to be issued for each year for which a P800 has been issued.

Further information is given at PAYE90026.