Income Tax - different every month!

milliemonster

Why is the amount of income tax I am paying different every month? it is making it impossible for me to budget accordingly.

My gross income is 2800.58 per month, my tax code is 65L, in May I paid £541, June was £492.47 and this month £527 income tax, nothing else has changed with my circumstances, my pension payments and NI payments are identical on each payslip, what is going on?

BoGoF

Has your tax code been 65L every month ?

Part of the reason is that the new budget tax allowances usually only start being operated from Month 2 of the tax year i.e. end of May. This in effect means you receive 2 months worth of increased allowance at the end of May meaning you pay less tax than in say June where you are receiving only one months extra allowance. Hope that makes sense. Assuming your taxable pay remains the same in the remainder of the tax year your tax should be the same as in June (give or take pennies)

milliemonster

Hi

Yes my tax code has been 65L since April, in June I paid £492.47 income tax on my salary of £2800.58, this month (just got my payslip today) it was £527 on the same gross salary, same tax code, nothing else changed but means my net pay is £35 less than last month, I have phoned my HR dept and left a message for them to get back to me and let me know what's going on

jem16

BoGoF wrote: »

Part of the reason is that the new budget tax allowances usually only start being operated from Month 2 of the tax year i.e. end of May.

Where on earth did you get this idea from?

Tax codes change on 6th April so will always be operated from the 1st pay day after 6th April. The budget which decided those tax allowances was ages ago.

I have paid exactly the same tax in April, May & June with exactly the same gross payment.

cfnc

Quote:
Originally Posted by BoGoF
Part of the reason is that the new budget tax allowances usually only start being operated from Month 2 of the tax year i.e. end of May.

Where on earth did you get this idea from?

Tax codes change on 6th April so will always be operated from the 1st pay day after 6th April. The budget which decided those tax allowances was ages ago.

I have paid exactly the same tax in April, May & June with exactly the same gross payment.



It depends when the tax coding was received by Payroll dept, It could also have been that the payroll dept did not update their system with the new tax bands until May. Your net pay now should be at the same level give or take 25p.

Hope this helps, Kirsty

chrisbur

Can you advise what your April gross was and the code for that?
On your payslips have any of the codes been on a month 1 basis, shown by 1 X or mth1 or similar after the code number?
Is your pension deducted before tax (net pay arrangement) if so what is the monthly figure and do you pay any AVCs?
Can you advise the taxable gross pay to date from each payslip?

suso

Just had a look at the tax tables.
Month Monthly Pay Gross Pay Free Pay Taxable Pay Tax Due (YTD) Tax Due (This Month)
1 2800.58 2800.58 54.92 2745.00 549.00 549.00
2 2800.58 5601.06 109.84 5491.00 1098.20 549.20
3 2800.58 8401.74 164.76 8236.00 1647.20 549.00
4 2800.58 11202.32 219.48 11202.00 2194.40 549.20

So as your income has been static and the code has been static then your tax due should be fairly static (within 20p variation a month)

It would be interesting to see what your income and tax was for April.

Your not paid 4 weekly are you (ie you receive 13 payments a year, instead of 12 monthly ones)