Despite the much hyped introduction of RTI, end of year tax checks on the incomes of taxpayers in the 2013/2014 tax year reveal over five million miscalculations.
3.5 million people paying tax via the PAYE system paid less tax than they should have, tax that will have to be repaid via tax code adjustments. A further 2 million people have paid too much tax and will now be able to put a claim in with HMRC for refunds.
Overall this reveals a 0.3 million rise in the number of errors in the tax system, year on year, despite the introduction of the Real Time Information of reporting income and tax liability.
When questioned about the new statistics, HMRC responded the errors account for a tiny percentage of the 41 million taxpayers, with the full benefits of RTI coming in spread over time. They added that not all employers had implemented RTI for the full 2013/2014 tax year.