Taxpayers across Liverpool who have paid the wrong amount of income tax have started to receive letters from HM Revenue & Customs to make them aware of the errors.
The first 45,000 were sent out by UK tax authorities on Tuesday detailing fresh tax calculations after previous mistakes were revealed by the introduction of a new computer system.
HMRC is now faced with recovering £2 billion that was underpaid over the last two tax years, while simultaneously repaying £1.8 billion that has been overpaid.
The remainder of the six million taxpayers will receive new calculations before Christmas.
On average 4.3 million people will be sent £420 in repayments in time for the next tax year 2011-12.
The HMRC will use the first 45,000 letters as a test to see just how many recipients respond to the payments.
If someone wants to challenge the new calculation, they can simply phone HMRC to ask for a recalculation.
In some limited circumstances, it may be possible to ask the authorities to write off the extra money being demanded.
An HMRC spokesman said: "In those cases where HMRC had all the information needed and the taxpayer could reasonably have thought they were being accurately taxed, [but] an underpayment has still arisen, it can be written off.
"In fairness to all taxpayers, this is not a blanket exemption and very much depends on the specific circumstances of each case."
Have you received a letter in the post? Let us know at Click Liverpool.
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