I am Higher Rate Taxpayer (40%) should I be filling a tax return?

jinkster

I am a PAYE higher rate tax payer - salary around £56,000/PA. Should i be filling out a tax return? I was chatting to a chap at work and he thinks I should be.

I am also paying pension contributions - should i be claiming these against Higher rate tax. How would i go about doing this? Thanks.

twig1_2

If you are paying tax through the PAYE system have a occupational pension with your employer and have no savings/expenses or a second source of income then generally you do not have to fill in a tax form. I would check your tax coding properly reflects your earnings though as you are responsible for giving the
HMRC the information.

jinkster wrote: »

I am a PAYE higher rate tax payer - salary around £56,000/PA. Should i be filling out a tax return? I was chatting to a chap at work and he thinks I should be.

I am also paying pension contributions - should i be claiming these against Higher rate tax. How would i go about doing this? Thanks.

katejo

twig1 wrote: »

If you are paying tax through the PAYE system have a occupational pension with your employer and have no savings/expenses or a second source of income then generally you do not have to fill in a tax form. I would check your tax coding properly reflects your earnings though as you are responsible for giving the
HMRC the information.

I was under the impression that all higher rate tax payers had to complete a form to declare things like savings interest (despite the current low levels!) which normally gets taxed at standard rate. Are there any higher rate tax payers with absolutely NO savings?

p00hsticks

If you have any non-ISA cash savings on which you receive interest or any non-ISA shares on which you receive dividends then you need to let HMRC know, as you'll only be having basic rate tax deducted on the interest and dividends and as a higher rate tax payer you will have more to pay.

Hopwever, that doesn't mean you need to fill in a full self assessment form - there is a simple one page form that you can complete with the details of interest and dividends earnt (Unfortnuately I can't remember the reference number) and HMRC can then adjsut your tax code to get any extra tax via PAYE.

I suggest you either call or write to HMRC to ask.

00ec25

if your gross (pre tax) income outside of PAYE is >£2,500 then the onus is on you to ask for a SA Return
if <$2,500 but you are already a higher rate tax payer than again the onus is on you to declare it but you simply do so by writing to HMRC and they will decide how they want you to play it , this may mean SA return, adjusting your tax code based and collecting via PAYE on you filling out a P810 form (or, less likely, you keep on with "informal" correspondence)

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/ways-to-pay.htm

martinsurrey

I have very little taxable outside PAYE so just ring HMRC up after each tax year and let them know, they then send me a cheque (for HR pension relief less extra tax on interest).

Pension relief depends on how your company operates its scheme. Some take the contribution before tax, so you are correctly taxed, some take it out of net pay (80p for every £1 contribution) and you have to claim back the higher rate tax relief.

taren

If you have ever claimed above £2500 in expenses due to your job from HMRC, then you have to do a self assessment.

An example would be mileage claim, ie your company pays you 15pence per mile, where HMRC says it is 45ppm up to 10,000 miles, and 25pp, from 10,000 to 40,000 miles.

You can claim your TAX percentage of the difference, thus 40% of 30ppm and 40% of 10ppm.

Im not saying you are claiming mileage, just an example to others and to help you, from my experience.

John_Pierpoint

Presumably you won't be caught by child tax credit?

pc1271

Is there a legal threshold for non-PAYE income that you don't have to declare? I'm right on the cusp of higher rate, and may go over by a few hundred pounds this year. My other income from savings, etc will be less than £100. Do I really have to ask for a tax return?

Edit: ok, I think I found the answer at the link above. It sounds like I need to tell them about it by phone, and they may tweak my tax code to collect the extra £10 or so. I bet it costs them way more than £10 to sort it out!

jinkster

Sadly no savings. I am 30 and just purchased a house (savings for deposit now gone!) and paid back career loan (£80,000) so left with a Higher rate wage and no savings...!!

No car expenses and no need to use own car for work purposes either. No share options, nothing. I go to work the company takes the PAYE tax and I get paid with the exception of a pension of which I am not sure is taxed at the higher rate or not. Not sure how I would find out either.

Thanks all for the info.

CLAPTON

jinkster wrote: »

Sadly no savings. I am 30 and just purchased a house (savings for deposit now gone!) and paid back career loan (£80,000) so left with a Higher rate wage and no savings...!!

No car expenses and no need to use own car for work purposes either. No share options, nothing. I go to work the company takes the PAYE tax and I get paid with the exception of a pension of which I am not sure is taxed at the higher rate or not. Not sure how I would find out either.

Thanks all for the info.

does your payslip show something like
gross salary
pension contribution
taxable salary?

or
give us the figures from your payslip