Authoritative information on NI contributions

xnoxxnox

Hello,

I am a regular full-time employee, and I believe I have overpaid NI tax. I'm on fixed annual salary without overtime and usually an annual bonus. I also get small employee benefits (medical insurance) and claim some employee expenses. Also relatively small amounts. I am paid monthly. Last year I changed jobs and had a monthly payslip for the same month, from two employers and I think I was charged NI through the roof.

Is there authoritative documentation as to what counts as "gross earnings per period"?
Do I have to pay NI on the employee benefits? Should I be spreading those across all employment periods?
Do I have to pay NI on the employee expenses? As in should NI be reduced based on deductions - charitable donations / job expenses? And should those be again spread across all employment periods?

The gov.uk website is less than helpful. I wish there was a place to plug in all the numbers, for all payslips, from all employers, and get NI calculated properly based on all facts.

Darksparkle

For employees, NI is determined by each pay period rather than annually like tax. So if you are paid monthly, that is the pay period. If weekly, that is the pay period etc.

Each month you can earn £672 per month without paying NI (weekly £155)

This allowance is per employer, not in total, unless the employers are associated.

You pay 12% on amounts between £672 and £3,583 per month.

Anything over £3,583 is 2%.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions#class-1-national-insurance-rates

If the employer has arranged and pays for the medical insurance then it is class 1a NIC that is due. That is paid by the employer, not the employee.

If you have arranged it and the employer pays it or your employer reimburses you then it is class 1 NIC and the benefit is essentially added to your salary and NIC'ed as such.

This is confirmed here - https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-medical-treatment/what-to-report-and-pay

What expenses are you referring to?

There are quite a few salary calculators available online and HMRC used to have an app you could use.

xnoxxnox

Expenses things I have filled out via "Income Tax: tax relief for expenses of employment (P87)" form. Home based employee allowance (to cover bills and space overheads) as well as equipment necessary for me to do my job, which employer does not provide for any of their employees (that one is large 1 400 quid).

Are the 12% & 2% brackets also per employer? I thought I was not supposed to pay 12% bracket twice - as in once with each employer.

xnoxxnox

Hmmm... "There are also (complicated) rules that limit the overall amount National Insurance you must pay if you have more than one job or mix employment and self-employment, but these are unlikely to be relevant unless you are quite highly paid." I wonder if the unless clause applies to me, in that month with two jobs... no idea how to check that. I guess I should write a letter to NI address with my payslips for that month and do my best calculation on the two.

Darksparkle

Why not post the figures?

agrinnall

xnoxxnox wrote: »

Are the 12% & 2% brackets also per employer? I thought I was not supposed to pay 12% bracket twice - as in once with each employer.

You think wrong. As darksparkle says, posting the actual figures will make it much easier to answer your questions.

[Deleted User]

xnoxxnox wrote: »

Hmmm... "There are also (complicated) rules that limit the overall amount National Insurance you must pay if you have more than one job or mix employment and self-employment, but these are unlikely to be relevant unless you are quite highly paid." I wonder if the unless clause applies to me, in that month with two jobs... no idea how to check that. I guess I should write a letter to NI address with my payslips for that month and do my best calculation on the two.

You will pay National Insurance on each employment at 12%. You will also benefit from the £155 p.w. threshold below which you do not pay NIC at each employment. Both these statements presume that the employments are not associated as darksparkle has intimated. YOU CANNOT do this mid-year as you appear to want to do - the contributions office cannot determine the overpayment (if any) until after the end of the tax year.

After the end of the tax year you can apply for a refund if you have exceeded the overall maximum payable at 12% although the contributions office will, in time, complete the review themselves.I have just applied for my own refund for 2015/16 and await a reply with interest.

"There are also (complicated) rules that limit the overall amount National Insurance you must pay if you have more than one job or mix employment and self-employment'

This is correct. The interaction between class 1, 2 and 4 National Insurance contributions is, probably, one of the most intricate and complicated calculations remaining in tax land.

xnoxxnox

I got a cheque from NI shortly after P800 calculations were finally corrected / finalised without me doing anything. It seems that one doesn't pay more than 12% threshold combined, which was the case for me in that one month with two employments overlapping. Or something along the lines, I was happy with the cheque I got, despite no calculations provided by NI office (unlike the P800 calculation for income tax refunds).