Minimum amount before NI has to be paid

kasi1314

Is there an annual limit on how much you earn before you have to pay NI?

The reason I ask is that i went onto the HMRC site and found out that if you earn £139 a week you have to pay National Insurance. Last year I earnt a total of £2700 over the course of 9 months. On average this works out as £75 a week which is below that limit.
I'm on PAYE and on some weeks I earnt less than £139 so i didn't have any NI contributions deducted from my wages but on a few weeks where I did earn over this, I got deductions taken for NI.

Can I claim this back?

System

NI is done on a weekly basis not annual amount averaged so the deductions were correct

nesco

no you can not claim. it works week to week basis
tax works for year to year basis.

00ec25

nesco wrote: »

no you can not claim. it works on week to week basis
tax works for year to year basis.

Pedantically speaking:
NI works on a non cumulative basis , ie one week at a time in isolation, hence some weeks you paid it, others you didn't. No reclaims allowed

Tax works on a cumulative basis over 1 year and will be adjusted + or - at the year end (if not on PAYE) and you have an over/under payment and submit a claim/SA return

PlutoinCapricorn

One way to reduce the amount of NI paid is to get two part time jobs - unfortunately again this does not apply to income tax.

You do need to be careful though: you may not qualify for certain things if your NI contribution record does not meet certain requirements.

kasi1314

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

One way to reduce the amount of NI paid is to get two part time jobs - unfortunately again this does not apply to income tax.

You do need to be careful though: you may not qualify for certain things if your NI contribution record does not meet certain requirements.

Could you explain why getting a second job helps? And what might I not qualify for?

CLAPTON

kasi1314 wrote: »

Could you explain why getting a second job helps? And what might I not qualify for?

for year 2011-12

if you earn 140 per week in a job you pay a (small) amount of NI
if you had two jobs each earning 70 each then you would pay no NI


NI contributions count towards state pension and contribution base JSA and doubtless other things.
Note that you only have to earn 102 per week to have NI contributions credited

PlutoinCapricorn

Don't forget that the rules and amounts often change as from April 6th each year, and that there may be drastic changes ahead in the long term.