Student Getting Taxed tonnes :(

ProcalX

Hi all, prior to my current job I have not worked for about 2 years. The last time I worked I used to get taxed free of charge up until I earned above about £5,500.

I work for a highstreet retail company, contracted 18 hours per week my basic pay comes to £509.80 but I get paid commission on everything I sell as well (also taxable).

I have been working part time whilst at Uni for coming upto 8 months, my Tax code has always been 653L and I have paid in total £797.20 in tax on £7,650. I am paying out on average about £320 in NI & Tax every month!

Is this correct? - I have been told by HR that the tax works differently now so if I earn £953 in one month I will get taxed like this:
£953 x 12 month period = X amount.

X amount then comes under a certain tax bracket and that is what I am taxed at and it is down to me to claim anything back at the end of the year? Could someone clear this up for me?

This is my only job.

jem16

ProcalX wrote: »

The last time I worked I used to get taxed free of charge up until I earned above about £5,500.

No you didn't. You have one twelfth of your tax-free allowances each month. If you earned more than this monthly allowance you would have paid tax. If you paid no tax it was because you were under the monthly allowance.

Is this correct? - I have been told by HR that the tax works differently now so if I earn £953 in one month I will get taxed like this:
£953 x 12 month period = X amount.

X amount then comes under a certain tax bracket and that is what I am taxed at and it is down to me to claim anything back at the end of the year? Could someone clear this up for me?

What you are being told is correct.

If you eanr more than £539.58 each month ( £6475/12) you will pay tax.

CLAPTON

post up your figures for each month from april

gross pay, tax, NI, taxcode

and maybe we can make some sense of it.

chrisbur

If I have guessed the month number correctly your tax looks quite close but the average of £320 tax and NI a month seems rather high. Can you advise gross tax and NI for each month seperately and I can then check these?

ProcalX

I will do later on, appreciate your responses