P45 kills off ex employee

A report in the Bournemouth Echo today is titled: Reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated!

Apparently HMRC wrote to 25yr old chef, Charles Westney, offering condolences for his own death.

Attempting to check the tax position for the “estate of the late Cecil Charles Westney”, the correspondence came as something of a shock to the chef.

“I can feel a pulse so I’m very much alive!” said Charles, whose middle name is Cecil.

When he queried the letter with HMRC they told him the blame appeared to lie with a previous employer, who they said had filled out his last P45 incorrectly. (One assumes that HMRC wasn't just referring to the sequence of his first and middle names!)

- Is it also possible that this mistake is related to a different error noted recently on this blog: HMRC's computers – an unfortunate conjunction of death and taxes?