Checking my tax refund

lightisfading

Just want to query the amount I got refunded as it's more than I expected.

Up until the end of august I had a take home pay of around £780/calendar month
I've just received my first pay from my new job (temp, paid weekly) - £222 before tax (which I expected). Tax this week = -£106.40, net pay £315.48. According to a tax calculator I should be receiving £187.92 after tax normally (tax code 603l)

... it works out that they've given me about £127 back?? Is that right? I can't afford to spend it and suddenly have it clawed back :huh:

chrisbur

lightisfading wrote: »

Just want to query the amount I got refunded as it's more than I expected.

Up until the end of august I had a take home pay of around £780/calendar month
I've just received my first pay from my new job (temp, paid weekly) - £222 before tax (which I expected). Tax this week = -£106.40, net pay £315.48. According to a tax calculator I should be receiving £187.92 after tax normally (tax code 603l)

... it works out that they've given me about £127 back?? Is that right? I can't afford to spend it and suddenly have it clawed back :huh:

If the last pay you received in your old job was in August this was probably in month 5 and would have been on code 543L. These figures should appear on your last payslip and on your P45 which I assume you gave to your new employer.
If you have just received your wages then they would be on week 26 and your code is now 603L as all L codes went up 60 towards the end of September.
Code 543L on month 5 gives a tax allowance of about £2266 and 603L at week 26 gives £3019. This means that you had £3019 - £2266 or £753 tax allowance for your first payday. £222 of this was used by your wages which left £531 which you had paid tax on which now had no tax due on it. The tax paid of 20% of £531 or £106 was then returned to you as a rebate.

The above is only correct if the assumptions I have made regarding week/month numbers and tax codes are correct and agree with your payslips and P45.
Also I have assumed that you had no taxable income or benefits between jobs.

The reason you got a different answer from the tax calculator is because they assume that your earnings are always spread out equally through the year and the same tax code is applied all year. You had a gap between jobs so you had a build up of tax allowance and there was the 60 place increase in L code numbers between jobs. From now on the tax calculator figure should be about right.