I was unemployed for 2 months - how do I know I'm paying the right tax?

elliegalli

Hi,
Over the last 12 months (i.e. during the last financial year) I took 2 months off from work to go travelling and was, therefore, unemployed. How do I find out if I have over or under-paid tax in the last financial year? And how is it calculated?
Thanks
Ellie

chrisbur

You can put your figures into a tax calculator eg.
https://listentotaxman.com/
This will give you the tax due figure to within a few pence. Ignore the NI figure as this will be wrong.

agrinnall

Did you get a P45 when you left each employer and give it to the new one when you started? If so then there shouldn't be any reason for your tax to be incorrect.

Mersey_2

You can contact HMRC and ask them to check if you're due a rebate for any of the past few tax years.


One or two months' gap usually doesn't result in a rebate, as what you pay via paye is averaged over the year based on your salary and personal allowance.


But a longer gap will almost certainly mean a rebate is due.


You presumably didn't claim JSA, but you can also check your NI record as there'll likely be a gap in NICs paid too (you don't have to but may want to pay a small sum as for that tax year it probably won't count as a full qualifying year for state pension purposes).

Dazed_and_confused

As agrinnall has said this is pretty dependent on what happened to your P45 from your original job (assuming you actually did change employers).

Quite possible there is no refund due