Will I get a tax penalty on my second job if I don't pay tax on first job?

PerryB

I have a part time job contracted at 12 hours a week and annually under 5k a year. I've recently got another job that is approx 12k a year and have been warned by multiple people there's a tax penalty on second jobs. So my question is... will I get a tax penalty on my second job if I don't pay tax on my first one?
If there's a penalty what is the percentage, I've been told it could be 40% tax on the second job.

Torry_Quine

There is no penalty no matter how many jobs you have. The allowance is £10,600 and anything above that will be taxed at 20%.

GothicStirling

Would it not be better to make the 12k job your main job, and the 5k your second job?

McKneff

Ring HMRC, explain and they will change your tax allowance over to your main job. Which as Gothic stirling says, will be much easier.


But no matter which way round it is, you will pay exactly the same tax.

agrinnall

It certainly won't be 40%, any tax you pay will be at the basic 20% rate, plus National Insurance at 12% (you probably aren't paying NI at all on your current job). If you do nothing then your new employer may have to tax all of your pay there at 20%, and you would need to reclaim the overpayment.

But as GothicStirling and McKneff have pointed out, this can be avoided by speaking to HMRC and having your personal allowance reallocated, either completely to the new job (probably the easiest option) or by keeping £5K on your first job and allocating £5.6K to the new job - either way you'll pay 20% tax on £6.6K, or £1,320.

theoretica

To put it another way- one job at 5k and a second job at 12k will pay the same income tax as a single job at 17k.

notanewuser

But not the same NI.

getmore4less

notanewuser wrote: »

But not the same NI.

For most(all?) people it will be less.

The OPs problem(being told) that you get taxed more is not the case in fact it is the opposite, you get taxed LESS(for the same total) the more jobs you have.