Taxed a large amount of money this month and confused why!

Raan91

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this situation.

It's payday for me tomorrow and we receive our payslips on the Friday before every payday. I opened it to find that I have been taxed a large amount of money, which has never happened before.

Last month and the month before I looked at my payslips and I have been on the tax-code 1000L and have been taxed around £58 (another £50+ on NI, so total deductions were around £112 those months).

However this month I was gobsmacked to see on my payslip that I have been taxed (P.A.Y.E) a total of £438.40 and my tax code is now apparently 100L instead of 1000L. All in all, the total deductions from my wages was £496.40 - a dramatic increase in deductions, despite only working around 10 hours extra this month.

A lot of my collegues at work mentioned that it could be the result of a clerical error but I'm worried that it's not. As a result my net payment for this month is not even enough to cover my rent. I have been told to contact HMRC but they are closed until tomorrow, so I thought I would ask here in the eventuality that someone may have experienced something similar.

jem16

The difference is obviously down to the change of tax code from 1000L to 100L. If you know of no reason for this to have changed then yes it could well be down to an error either by your employer or HMRC.

You need to take this up with payroll at work in case the error is there. If they insist it's correct then phone HMRC.

You could have phoned HMRC yesterday though.

agrinnall

A change from 1000L to 100L is massive, I can't believe such a huge change could have been correctly made without you having some idea why it would happen (let alone the fact that you should have received a P2 coding notice explaining the basis for the change) so my money would be on a major co*k up by your employer. If that is the reason then insist that they either correct it quickly or advance you the amount that you are short until it is resolved.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Certainly sounds like a clerical error to me. You would have received a coding notice if your tax code had changed. Speak to payroll immediately tomorrow.

patanne

I suspect they use a payroll provider who work on the principle of computer say.... Anyone with their employee's interests in mind having to use 100L instead of 1000L would check with HMRC that it was correct & not just apply it.

In the dim & distant past when I used to do wages, if I got a significant change to a tax code I would have a private word with the employee & ask if the recent change to the tax code was correct and if not they should contact HMRC quickly before I had to implement it. These days that would probably be against the DPA.

dizzybuff

If your payroll uses the HMRC website they would have downloaded your tax code. They don't check them and will process the tax code HMRC state.


But payroll will be able to tell you the date it was changed . The rest is HMRC , get on to HMRC because if it is their error ( they will NEVER admit this ) ask them to fax a coding notice to work . Then update it electronically if your employee does it like this.


However if you already have your payslip , your pay have probley already been sent to BACs and may be unable to b changed till August pay. If your public sector you may be able to ask for an advance. If not im afraid you are going to have to wait for the tax refund through your pay in august.

patanne

You need to check as soon as possible as if not you will have a repeat at the end of July. Speak to HMRC asap. They open at 8am and are best spoken to before 9am

agrinnall

dizzybuff wrote: »

However if you already have your payslip , your pay have probley already been sent to BACs and may be unable to b changed till August pay. If your public sector you may be able to ask for an advance. If not im afraid you are going to have to wait for the tax refund through your pay in august.

You do not have to settle for this. While your employer might not like it, if you kick up enough of a fuss the easiest way for them to make you go away is to pay you what you are due, whether you are public or private sector.