Nearly 6 million in UK have paid wrong amount of tax

LONDON - Nearly six million people are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, and authorities will demand about 2 billion pounds more from hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, HM Revenue and Customs said on Saturday.

The first batch of letters has been sent out and are due to arrive on people"s doormats on Tuesday, with the rest arriving by Christmas.

A total of 2 billion pounds has been underpaid through the Pay as You Earn system over the past two years, meaning 1.4 million taxpayers will be asked to fork out another 1,500 pounds each on average.

But 4.3 million people have paid too much tax and are set to enjoy an average rebate of 418 pounds, because a total of 1.8 billion pounds was overpaid during the same period. Some taxpayers may face both underpayment and overpayment notices.

The money will be collected or refunded through their tax codes for 2011-12.

Where taxpayers can demonstrate they have provided all necessary information, tax authorities will consider writing off demands, but there is no guarantee.

They said some people would always have paid either too much or too little because of changing circumstances.

But the unusually high number of revisions now the result of a new IT system having been put in place that reflects changing circumstances more accurately by looking at taxpayers" employment details rather than their employers".