How do I make sure, as a student, I'm not paying PAYE?

xargirl

Pretty much what it says in the title.

As a uni student who only really works over the summer and holiday periods, I make well under the £10,000 NI lower income threshold per year required to start paying PAYE. But I always seem to still get PAYE taken out of my payslips, which is annoying. They seem to assume that if I make more than £110 pounds (say, at £6.50 per hour as a waitress) in one week in the summer holidays, then I must be earning that amount every week for the whole year, which is not the case.

Am I just being thick here? I'm 19 and very new to the world of work, so it's entirely likely. Is there some special tax-code which as a full-time student I should be on? :S

Thank you!

jackieblack

Even if you earned £110 every week you still would still only earn £5720 a year :huh:

Have a look at this http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/check-tax-code and this http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/tax-codes.htm

Are you sure that it's income tax being deducted and not National Insurance contributions?
NI is payable based on your earnings each week, not each year so you would be liable to pay contributions in the weeks you're earning above the threshold. Info here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/intro/basics.htm

Lokolo

Yes you are being thick, but you are young so I will forgive you :rotfl:

NI and Income Tax are different things.

You have a £10,000 allowance for Income Tax.

National Insurance is a £110 weekly allowance. If you earn over £110 in a week you will pay NI.

If you pay any income tax and then end the tax year below £10,000 you can reclaim.

agrinnall

Lokolo wrote: »

Yes you are being thick, but you are young so I will forgive you :rotfl:

NI and Income Tax are different things.

You have a £10,000 allowance for Income Tax.

National Insurance is a £110 weekly allowance. If you earn over £110 in a week you will pay NI.

If you pay any income tax and then end the tax year below £10,000 you can reclaim.

Ah, but who's going to forgive you, can you play the "I'm young and thick" card too?

NI is not paid by an employee until they are earning £153 a week. Anyone earning between £111 and £153 a week has their NI contributions record credited but actually pays nothing.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

OP, can you post the figures from your latest pay slip and we can check them, and if they're wrong when can tell you what you need to do to sort it out? In particular, what tax code is being applied?

silvercar

In the old days, before April 2013, students could sign a form to say they were students and didn't expect to earn over the tax limit in that tax year and so weren't tax.

Thanks to the real time reporting that hmrc have now implemented, this option has disappeared and, although earnings are cumulative, students could find themselves in situations where they pay tax in the Summer but don't earn enough in subsequent months to justify that tax having been paid.

In the long run that tax will be paid back to them, either by way of adjustments to their tax code in the remaining months or as a refund paid by hmrc.

AFAIK there is no mechanism to claim back any NI contributions paid.

Lokolo

agrinnall wrote: »

Ah, but who's going to forgive you, can you play the "I'm young and thick" card too?

NI is not paid by an employee until they are earning £153 a week. Anyone earning between £111 and £153 a week has their NI contributions record credited but actually pays nothing.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

OP, can you post the figures from your latest pay slip and we can check them, and if they're wrong when can tell you what you need to do to sort it out? In particular, what tax code is being applied?

Well I never knew that, how odd.

And yes, 25 is still young in my books :rotfl::D