Paying Too much Tax?

jetstarr

Hi guys, just a really quick question from a long time lurker.

I have a full time job, and also a small job on the side writing. After doing all of my taxes for my writing stuff, I can see that I owe around £500 after April from it, though I only earn about £85 every other month.

There's also this National Insurance contribution that comes through the door every once in a while; this latest one to pay is around £70. Should I need to pay that, since I'm already in full time work and paying my National Insurance through that?

I hate all this tax stuff, I can't seem to get my head around it, though I'm certain I'm paying too much. I'm starting to wonder what the point in doing it is, when I barely see the money!

Any advice would be really appreciated.

chrisbur

jetstarr wrote: »

Hi guys, just a really quick question from a long time lurker.

I have a full time job, and also a small job on the side writing. After doing all of my taxes for my writing stuff, I can see that I owe around £500 after April from it, though I only earn about £85 every other month.

There's also this National Insurance contribution that comes through the door every once in a while; this latest one to pay is around £70. Should I need to pay that, since I'm already in full time work and paying my National Insurance through that?

I hate all this tax stuff, I can't seem to get my head around it, though I'm certain I'm paying too much. I'm starting to wonder what the point in doing it is, when I barely see the money!

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Easy bit first, no you do not need to pay NI on low self employed earnings, but you have to get a
Certificate of Small Earnings Exception details here
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cf10.pdf


Regarding the tax if you are owing £500 on earnings of £510 I suspect that you are doing something wrong on your tax return but cannot say what as you have given no details.

brendon

It sounds like you've filled out the form wrong, or that your employer hasn't been deducting the correct tax. You didn't happen to declare your self-employment earnings in the employment section, or vice-versa, did you? As for National Insurance, they are in two different classes and you have to pay them both, with their own thresholds -- but you'll be eligible for Small Earnings Exception, as above.

jetstarr

I knew you guys could shed some light on this! Thank you, you've helped a hell of a lot just by letting me know there's probably something wrong- for ages I was just assuming that this was right, and I was hating it!

Thank you for your help; I'll be off to find someone who can help me sort this all out now that I know it's likely to be wrong how it is now.

Cheers, MSE guys!