Tax advice for a Supply Teacher

DavidMiller88

Hello all.

Firstly, this is less cutting tax and more just trying not to over-pay. I've been going over my taxes, which have seemed high since I started, and kept coming out with differing figures that either said I was getting taxed correctly or over taxed. I couldn't square this circle until I realised the two methods I was using reflected two different things:

The first was what the tax man was using, and reflected my income across the year as if I was a salaried teacher or an office worker. When I calculated my income by day, week, month and then year this was roughly what I was being taxed, even though it seemed to taking a large chunk of my income.

The second was working a weekly amount (which is how I'm actually paid) and then multiplying it by 39 weeks, which is the term weeks across a primary school year. It's this total that not only reflects the reality of my maximum income, but represents a best case scenario, working every day, which is often not what happens. Obviously, under this I'm getting over taxed.

So, in short, I'm getting taxed for imaginary months I can't work. Yes, I supposedly see this again in my rebate, but firstly, I need money across the year, not in some lump sum, especially as I need to plan for non-term months, but also rebates always feel a little like imaginary money that, really, you never see again, or only see a fraction of. And yes, I could potentially be working across those months, but unless you lived on some bizarre nexus points between local authorities, you won't be doing it as a teacher, and no one wants to employ me for two months at Christmas, funnily enough. Even more, if I did work, the tax man would know about it anyway.

TL:DR The tax man is taxing me as though I work when I don't.

Is just waiting for my rebate the only solution here? I trust rebates about as far as I can throw HRMC.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Can you post your August and September payslip details?  

The tax should be recalculated each time you are paid and you would pay less some months.

Pennywise

PAYE tax works on dividing your annual tax allowance by 52 weeks on a "year to date" basis unless you've got a Week/Month 1 tax code which means it's just a weekly/monthly basis with no regard to year to date earnings.  So, you'll never be taxed on your 39 week per year basis, as the tax system simply doesn't work like that.   The PAYE system was designed at a time when most workers had steady jobs/incomes, so doesn't work quite so well for people with "lumpy" incomes where there are high and low periods.  In the case of a supply teacher, I'd imagine you'd "overpay" tax in the run up to Summer, then get refunds over Summer as you earn little or nothing (or pay a lot less in September when you restart working), and the same to a lesser extent at Christmas and Easter.  

Runninglaps

Are you counting National Insurance as a tax?

If you're paying class 1 (normally paid by employees, not the self employed) which it sound as if you are currently are these will be based on your pay period, which form the sounds of it is weekly, but unlike income tax is not averaged across the year.

So this will have a bigger impact on someone with a lumpy income like you, and make it look like your NI is wrong if you try and work it out annually.

If, however, you are just talking about income tax its as people say above, just have to wait.