HMRC Bother

Need some advice from you knowledgeable people.

Recieved last months payslip, and discovered that I had been taxed 40 odd quid for National Insurance and just "Tax" .

However I do not in anyway shape of form earn nearly enough annually to be taxed. Adding to the fact that I am also a student so its not council tax or anytihng like that .

I have phoned up the lovely people at HMRC and was on the phone for nearly 2 hours yesterday but never actually spoke to anyone. I just spoke to a recorded message and placed on hold, before being hung up on. The information on the website is not very clear for me, as I haven't over paid NI tax for the year, which appears to be the only option on there?

Was wondering is anyone had any ideas that I could try to get this money back. I know it seems petty for £40 but that was a days work for me, and is a weeks worth of food... (or a night out)

Any advice welcome

Have you just started a new job? If so, it's possible that the HR department failed to complete the paperwork (probably an online system these days) in time for them to receive an up-to-date tax code for you which would ensure their system would calculate the right amount of tax (i.e. zero). As a result, you've probably been put on an "emergency tax" code, which generally taxes you at the standard PAYE rate. You should get a rebate on that, but you'll probably have to wait until the end of the tax year in April.

Not started it as such, I'm on a seasonal contract which they juts add hours too when I'm home. I wasn't emergancy taxed the first months wages. The only thing I can think of is that I worked a lot of extra hours which ping the threshold :/

Not started it as such, I'm on a seasonal contract which they juts add hours too when I'm home. I wasn't emergancy taxed the first months wages. The only thing I can think of is that I worked a lot of extra hours which ping the threshold :/

Yeah, possibly. If the amount you earned last month was replicated over a full year, and that amount took you over the threshold, they may have taxed you on that basis. Once it gets to April and you've not earned enough to be paying PAYE, you should get it back.

Worth noting that now that companies are on RTI, these kinds of things can usually be rectified fairly quickly. We used to only get P6 notices (change to tax code) through very occasionally and stuff was rectified after year end, but RTI now means it is all adjusted more quickly in year where possible and we get P6's through most months now.

You should know which tax code you are on as HMRC should've sent you a letter confirming it, if it has changed recently. As Steve has said, a larger amount of hours in one month may mean their payroll package starts to tax you based on projected earnings for the year, however the company also have to declare your average weekly hours, which also goes towards the calculation. Bands are:

A - 0 to 15.99 hrs

B - 16 to 23.99 hrs

C - 24 - 29.99 hrs

D - 30 hrs or more

E - Other

And there is also a check box for 'irregular hours'.

We don't have any casual workers on our payroll anymore (they're treated as self-employed now) but if we did we would tick that last box, but I'm not sure how it affects your tax calculations on a monthly basis. The one thing I do know is that HMRC prefer to get more tax than is due and pay it back, than to not take enough in the first place and have to recoup it, and irregular payments or 'casual' staff are likely to get hit up front a bit more I would suspect!

The system that applies tax works it out on a monthly basis, hence why when you go over the 40% treshold you dont end up paying masses more then you paid the month before etc.

Of a monthly rate of, lets say, £1000, (this part uses obviously incorrect amounts) the first part is tax free, the next 400 would be taxed at a rate of 20% and the rest at 40% etc

Therefore if you earned extra this month the algorithms will apportion part at a 20% rate, I imagine you'll get it back via a rebate. But yes, I can certainly share your pain in trying to get intouch with them.

Here's an odd one, my wife was given a tax rebate, as were many of here colleagues. After banking the cheque, she was told it was an error & HMRC wanted their money back, which she paid & have the evidence on our bank statement to show the cheque was cashed. My wife then gets a letter saying she still owes the original amount, HMRC will not accept that they have received & cashed the cheque. We then mysteriously get a payment from HMRC, credited directly to our bank account for exactly the same sum of money (to the penny). All a bit strange, especially as the original payment was for Income Tax & the second was for Child Tax Benefit, something we haven't been entitled to since the rules changed a few years ago.

I phoned* 23 (yes 23) times before getting through to someone, despite recounting the above tale & saying we aren't entitled to CTB, they are adamant the cash is ours.

* When calling HMRC the menus are voice activated, some further down the tree are keypad selected, unfortunately there isn't an menu option suitable for what I need to talk about, so I pressed/said just about every combination possible, only to have HMRC automatically hang up, because they are too busy. On call 23 I decided to say/press nothing, eventually I got put in a queue & spoke to a very nice lady. This will be my tactics from no on - keep schtum.

Yeah, possibly. If the amount you earned last month was replicated over a full year, and that amount took you over the threshold, they may have taxed you on that basis. Once it gets to April and you've not earned enough to be paying PAYE, you should get it back.

Common practice

HMRC are a weird org. I had to pay extra tax last year at the end of the year. They sent me a letter to tell me this, probably 6 or 7 times within 2 weeks.

I paid on receipt of the first letter.

I then got a letter to say it's been paid, again, probably 5 or 6 times, each in a different format.

I then get a letter saying it's not paid. I phone up, they apologise and say they'll send a letter to confirm it's paid. They do, another 3 times.

I mean, seriously? I've got them all - what a massive waste of taxpayer money

One simple solution when faced with HMRC tax demands: Change your name by deed poll to 'Portsmouth Football Club'.

HMRC are a weird org. I had to pay extra tax last year at the end of the year. They sent me a letter to tell me this, probably 6 or 7 times within 2 weeks.

 

I paid on receipt of the first letter.

 

I then got a letter to say it's been paid, again, probably 5 or 6 times, each in a different format.

 

I then get a letter saying it's not paid. I phone up, they apologise and say they'll send a letter to confirm it's paid. They do, another 3 times.

 

I mean, seriously? I've got them all - what a massive waste of taxpayer money

Its not just public sector. I bought a sofa 8 years ago. Every three months since then they've posted me a heavy glossy catalogue. Whatever profit they made from the original sale must have been largely used up by now.

Its not just public sector. I bought a sofa 8 years ago. Every three months since then they've posted me a heavy glossy catalogue. Whatever profit they made from the original sale must have been largely used up by now.

Price mark-up on furniture is %100. It's expensive to sell because of the retail space it needs.

Price mark-up on furniture is %100. It's expensive to sell because of the retail space it needs.

I often used to wonder what rates the furniture companies got on "interest free credit, nothing to pay for x years" type finance. At one stage I kept getting told by potential customers they were buying an item from another dealer who did interest-free, so I looked into offering it myself, and the rates were truly horrendous. If the punters only knew how much of that purchase was going direct to the finance company servicing the deal, I doubt many of them would have gone through with it. Still, a lot of them found out the hard way when they wanted to resell the item, and discovered just how little value had been in the product to start with. All I'd say to anyone considering one of these deals, if you assume that half your money goes in finance, and the dealer has to make his mark-up out of the remaining half, you won't be far wrong.