Have I overpaid on student internship?

andystanger

Howdy chaps,

I had total earnings of £7824 while under the 543L tax code (tax year 08/09) for a summer internship, I have been taxed £1111. Is this too much? I put these values into listentotaxman dot com and it says I should have paid £739.79 tax/NI, however I put the £7824 in as an annual salary even though it was earned in ten weeks. Does that change anything? Basically I would just like to know how much I should ask for when I write a letter to HMRC!

Also does this make a difference- in the same tax year as the above, but with tax code 603L I earned an additional £1018 and paid tax at £39 doing an xmas stint at phones4u. Im not bothered about reclaiming £39, Im just wondering if it affects the above calculation at all. I dont know how to deal with earnings in the same tax year but different tax codes!

I still have the P45s from both jobs, although before someone asks I do not remember if I gave any tax forms from my summer job to my xmas job!

Thanks a lot!

CLAPTON

tax and NI work on different principles
tax is worked out on a yearly basis although charged monthly
whereas NI is worked out on a weekly or monthly basis depending upon how you are paid.

so
TAX
your total income was 7824+1018 = 8842
so your tax will be (8842-6035) x 20% = 561

for NI we need to know exactly how you are paid but if your 7824 was spread over 10 months then your NI would be

10 x (7824/10 ( i.e. per week) -105) x 11% ) = 745

mrkbrrws

You earned £7,824 in the Summer and £1,018 at Christmas. Total £8,842.

You can earn £6,035 before you pay tax (2008/09), so that leaves £2,807 taxable. So your tax at 20% should be £561.40.

If your figures of £1,111 and £39 are all Income Tax (i.e. not NICs), that means you should be due a refund of £588.60.

You don't need to tell HMRC how much you should be refunded, although it helps to know whether they get it right or not. You do need to give details of both periods of employment in your letter though.