Taxed on a one off bonus payment

GoogleIsNotEnough

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice on the following:

My partner only works part time, 2 days a week and only earns around £8000 a year, well below this years £12570 tax allowance. 

She received a one off bonus payment in her pay this month (April 2021) i.e. the first month of the new tax year. This has resulted in her paying tax. We know that by the end of the tax year she will not have exceeded the £12570 tax free amount.

I assume the HMRC think this is her new monthly pay so are taxing accordingly however that is not the case as this is just a one off bonus.

My question is can we claim that tax back now, or do we have to wait until the end of the tax year when the HMRC calculate what tax is owed/due back and get the refund then?

If we can do the former of these two options, could somebody point me in the right direction of how she can claim this back?

Thanks in advance 

penners324

It'll be repaid on the payroll over the next 12 months assuming she's on a cumulative tax code.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

No, she cannot claim it back.

Her employer will automatically recalculated her tax liability each time they pay her and refund any tax overpaid through her wages.

[Deleted User]

If she only earns 8000 basic pay per annum she may get the tax back more quickly. What was the amount of the bonus?

For example, if it was £1500 all tax would be repaid by July salary, assuming the tax code is cumulative.

chrisbur

There are no assumptions made by PAYE it is just a few simple rules.  The allowance starts at about £1048 for month one so any earnings over that have tax deducted.  This doubles to  £2096 for month two so if your earnings for months one and two come to less than that the tax would be repaid in month two.  If they are still more than £2096 you get some of the tax back and the rest is carried forward.  Month three you get £3144 allowance and again if your earnings for months one two and three are less than this you get the carried forward tax back if not again some is refunded and the rest carried forward.  This goes on each month an extra £1048 is added to your allowance and some tax is rebated until it has all been paid back and there is none to carry forward.  So depending on the size of the bonus it will all come back and that may be all back by next payday or could take a few paydays but to take the full tax year it would have to have been something like £4500.