Check your Income Tax for 2006/07

MSE_Martin

Checking tax isn't easy.

Sad to say, checking tax is one of the most complicated scenarios out there - and involves a massive interaction of variables. My aim here therefore, is to give employees at least a quick way to check whether your tax bill looks roughly right.

Who should be checking?

My focus is on those who have only been employees, not who also have income from self-employed (or other big stuff like buy-to-let income). If so and you've worked the whole year for one company, the likelihood is there isn't a problem (though it's still possible you've got the wrong tax code, but that's a subject for another day).

Yet if you've changed job, stopped working, not handed in your P45 or been on an emergency tax code, or have had more than one job at once, it's possible you've paid too much.

How to check if you've paid the right amount.

Gather together your P60s (the form your employer gives you at the end of the tax year) or your P45s (the form you get when you leave employment). Then add up your gross taxable pay and the tax paid from your P60s (or P45s) for the year.

Next, enter the grand total of you gross taxable pay into the green box called "my gross income per year" on the Listen To The Tax Man website and hit calculate. If it brings up a similar tax paid figure in the 'per year' column to what you paid, your payments will probably be correct.

What if it's different?

If it's substantially different it's likely to be because you've been given the wrong tax code at some point (unless you've got substantial benefits or are over 65). At this point, you should consider contacting the HM Revenue and Customs site to see if your info correct.

Telephone or write to the relevant tax office asking them to check if you have paid the correct tax. The phone call takes about 5 minutes and if there's a problem you will be sent a repayment claim form.

If for some reason you don't have your payslip or P60, you'll need to find out which tax office to contact from your employer. You can then contact the relevant tax office to ask for further help.


Martin


Related Articles:

For more information on tax read the Tax Tony articles:

Taxing Times 5, Taxing Times 4, Taxing Times 3, Taxing Times 2, Taxing Times 1

nicki_2

Thank You so much for the link to the tax calculator - we're having major problems with taxes which we're trying to sort out ourselves...hopefully I can now check that all my calculations are right! :j

Look out IR&C Nicki's on the war path :rotfl:

iritchie

Hey everyone.

I have been working abroad for the past 6 months, and have only spent 2 weeks in the UK during this time, but still get paid through a UK company.
I started in November in Dubai (where there is no tax anyway) so can I look at reclaiming some of the tax I've paid, or have I missed the cutoff because of the April end of tax year thing??

Also, am I able to claim back some of my council tax, seeing my flat has been lying empty during this time?

Thanks.
Appreciate any responses.

pbright

Just udes your caluculator...told me what i already knew about my tax but tells me iv overpaid my NI by £200....and from what i have read in a previous post i can not get this back!! £200 is alot to somebody who earned £8,500 last year....is their no way i canget it back???

Hoddie_2

The calculator that Martin has linked to does not calculate NI correctly in every case, and nor is the information it provides about age-related allowances completely correct either. Take the results it provides cautiously.

pbright - contact the NI office on 0845 302 1479 to discuss claiming a repayment. Have your P60 and any P45s handy when you call.

goosegirl_2

I sent a letter to my tax office after trying to call them on the phone 3 times in a row only to get cut straight off by them ,so I wrote in frustratution to them telling them they had charged me to much tax as it was calculated for me by my social services, as im a disabled pensioner,they wrote back to me to tell me that it was calculated on my pension increase which would be going up in April and this was when new tax codes came out in March ..............cheek of them being so presumption as did not even know my increase for April myself,so got nowhere with them.

nicki_2

We now have a covering letter, a photocopy of the P11D from a previous employer (car benefits being a BIG problem... stupid accountant at previous employer didn't do his job properly or tell us the right information! Plus IR getting information wrong over and over again no matter what we tell them:mad:) and 6 A4 sheets showing the errors for my partners tax from 2001/02 through 2004/05. By my calculations they are £400 out with what we owe them (at one point they said we owed them £1000!:eek:). Oh and I love the fact that they pay you a tax allowance when they don't pay you back an overpayment within a certain amount of time

Thank you so much Martin, if it wasn't for you I would have carried on taking the IR word for how much we owed them

smiley33

Hi - I have changed my job 4 times since last summer! I started my current job on 2nd April and have had my payslip through and my tax code is BR C (I've only just filled in a P46)

My salary is : £1,381.21
Tax : 303.82
Nat. Insurance : £104.08

I've only picked up £973.31 - my yearly wage is £16,574

In my last job I was on £15,000 and I had more than this!!

Help!

jem16

smiley33 wrote: »

Hi - I have changed my job 4 times since last summer! I started my current job on 2nd April and have had my payslip through and my tax code is BR C (I've only just filled in a P46)

My salary is : £1,381.21
Tax : 303.82
Nat. Insurance : £104.08

I've only picked up £973.31 - my yearly wage is £16,574

In my last job I was on £15,000 and I had more than this!!

Help!

It's because you are on BR code - Basic Rate. Everything is taxed at 22% and you are receiving no tax-free allowance at the moment. Now that you have filled in your P46, a proper tax code should be issued. Once that tax code is used you will receive any overpayment back.

overlykeensaver

I can't seem to get the taxman link to work; is the site down?

jem16

I just tried it and it's fine for me.