Nearly six million people in the UK have paid the wrong amount of tax.

The tax office is about to inform those who have made incorrect Pay as You Earn installments that they owe an average of £1,500 each.

But £1.8 billion has also been overpaid and some 4.3 million people will get a rebate because they have paid too much.

Millions of letters will be sent to taxpayers across the UK informing them of errors in their contributions, with the first letters expected to be sent out on Monday.

The discrepancies in the PAYE system occurred because amounts deducted in tax and National Insurance by employers did not match the information held on tax office records.