Tax man stealing my payrise!

clairey_em

Well, I got my first pay slip yesterday, after the end of the financial year, and the £3000 pay rise that I got in December has now amounted to a grand total of, wait for it, £40 per month! this is because apparently I've been underpaying them, I'm assuming this is due to the time from jan to now where work have been paying me under my old tax code. so I've lost £100 from our monthly budget which makes a huge difference grrrrr!!@!@!:mad: :mad: :mad:

So not only am I not exactly thrilled at work anyway at the moment, I do love my job but it's bl@@dy hard work, I'm not even given the chance to be rewarded for my efforts! so unfair!!!

Has this hapened to anyone else? maybe I was stupid not to realise it was coming...? oh well...

ManAtHome

It's unlikely that your tax code will have changed in January unless you also got some "perks" as well as the pay rise (car, bupa etc). Have you had a notice of coding for this year - may be some underpaid tax from (the whole of) last year?

ps - alternatively this years coding may be wrong... should show your basic allowance and detailed deductions for benefits-in-kind and underpaid tax.

Also if you're a higher-rate taxpayer with savings income, the IR may have kindly offered to take the additional tax charge off you under PAYE. I had a notice to this effect the back-end of last year, phoned them to object and carried on with the "settle up at the end of the year".

clairey_em

Thanks ManAtHome,

I'm not a higher rate tax payer, although I do have a company car, and I did get a new one in december last year, and it was a slightly better model but not enough to make such a substantial difference to my tax code and payments. I think I'll have to give them a ring, although I find the whole issue very confusing. I have had a notice of code which says I do have under paid tax from last year, but I don't understand why or how it's got so much... v confusing!

thanks for your help

C E

scholt

I got deducted an eye watering £1600 this month (on a bonus payment which hardly seemed worth it given....)

Thriftylady

Does anyone else think that the tax system is so complicated that its nearly impossible to know if you are paying the right amount ? I am constantly 'catching up' as every year they decide that I underpaid the year before. I could understand this if I was self employed, or had a variable income, but I have worked for the same company for years, always paying through PAYE. In February this year I got two letters within three weeks telling me that my tax code had changed with immediate effect......

You are also at the mercy of your companies HR/salary dept, if they make a mistake that you don't know about then it can haunt you for years....

clairey_em

Thriftylady wrote:

Does anyone else think that the tax system is so complicated that its nearly impossible to know if you are paying the right amount ? I am constantly 'catching up' as every year they decide that I underpaid the year before. I could understand this if I was self employed, or had a variable income, but I have worked for the same company for years, always paying through PAYE. In February this year I got two letters within three weeks telling me that my tax code had changed with immediate effect......

You are also at the mercy of your companies HR/salary dept, if they make a mistake that you don't know about then it can haunt you for years....

Yep this seems to be what's happening to me, I'm going to have to check with our pay roll dept as it seems I'm paying still for 04 - 05 and 05 - 06, surely they should have at least sorted 04 - 05 out by now!

scholt - I always get half my bonus taken away too, just when you think you've got a bit of extra cash for all your hard work, they whip it all away!

:mad: