Christmas overtime leading to earning *less*?

CunningPlan44

eamon said:

Its the downside of normal earnings being close to a higher income tax bracket.

That's the thing. My normal earnings are nowhere near the threshold for the higher rate. Even if my December pay represented a typical month (ie I was paid that amount every month for 12 months) I would still easily be in Basic Rate territory.

nyermen

HMRC changes my tax code all the time, but it never "averages out" by month 12, I end up getting a repayment back.  In my case I got a bonus in October I think it was, and sure enough, November and December pay checks they had taken the same amount of tax from a much less amount.  They did it last year, I got a repayment after the end of the tax year.

chrisbur

nyermen said:

 I got a bonus in October I think it was, and sure enough, November and December pay checks they had taken the same amount of tax from a much less amount.  

For HMRC to have done this would require some very precise calculations to adjust your tax code for Nov/Dec and prior knowledge of the pay you were going to receive.  If this happened to me I would first think that my employer was tinkering with my tax figures for some reason.  If you want this checking if you give the following details we can see if it was your employer or HMRC that caused this.
For each of the three months ....
Taxable gross
Tax paid
Tax code
Taxable gross to date
Tax paid to date

Probably best to start a new thread  

chrisbur

Just a theory but on re-reading your original post I see you said " also applied for an increased HMRC allowance for working from home (as advised by MSE!) - which meant my tax code was adjusted in the Summer of 2020"
Is it possible that this new tax code was applied a bit later than you remember; and was actually in your November payment?
If this was the case your November payment, if made after the 5th November would have included 7 months back-dated allowance which at £6 a week works out at £26 a month which for 7 months would be £182  You would get 20% of that which is £36.40.  Your tax for that month would in affect be £36.40 lower than it normally would be, which would be why your January tax appears to be £36.20 higher than your November tax.  Paye fluctuates by 20 pence due to the way it is calculated so a 20 pence difference is quite possible.
As I said just a theory.