Any ideas what has happened to my Tax/NI?

alkanlelaan

Hi everyone, first apologies if this is in the wrong forum. 

Hoping someone with more knowledge of tax and accounts than me can help with this query i have regarding my most recent payslip.

I am an IT contractor, get paid weekly via an umbrella company. 

There was an issue with my tax code for one week whereby i moved home, updated my address, and HMRC didnt realise it was still in Scotland- this was corrected by them the following week. So for one week i was paid a bit more but my tax code got changed the following week to reflect that. 

Now the issue is, for the past few weeks ive worked the same hours, been paid the same, taxed the same, but for some reason this week my tax has shot up by an additional £200+ whilst my NI has dropped. The payslip says week 5, even though its week 6 so not sure if thats something to do with it. 

I have added the info below from my Payslips so you can see the discrepancy- i expected this weeks pay to be the same as the previous 2 as nothing has changed since i went onto the new tax code. 

Week Ending	Tax Code	Basic Pay	Commission	Holiday pay	PAYE	Nat Insurance	Take home	TAX WEEK	Days worked	Rate
06-May	S1235LX	356.25	1363.89	207.6	828.25	62.66	1034.34	5	5	450
29-Apr	S1235LX	356.25	1384.22	210.06	579.39	134.91	1233.74	5	5	450
22-Apr	S1235LX	356.25	1384.22	210.06	579.39	134.91	1233.74	4	5	450
15-Apr	1294L	356.25	1384.22	210.06	458.37	134.91	1354.76	3	5	450
08-Apr	S1294L	320.63	1246.09	189.09	495.35	128.59	1129.38	2	4.5	450
01-Apr	S1294L	33413	1406.34	210.06	574.88	134.91	1238.25	1	5	450

Anyone have any ideas what could cause this weeks change? 

Ill be contacting the umbrella/HMRC tomorrow but just wracking my brain trying to figure this out tonight just so i have an idea about what they are telling me.  Any help would be appreciated. 

thank you 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

What does the week ending date relate to?

Pay on 01/04/2022 would be in week 52 of the previous tax year, not week 1 of the new tax year.

29 April and 6 May are in different tax weeks so shouldn't both be week 5.

I suspect the latter is likely to be the issue, your pay on 6 May had been calculated using the same tax week so you have already used your tax code allowances hence extra tax.

Pointless asking HMRC about this, you need to speak to someone who deals with the payroll for an explanation.

alkanlelaan

thanks for the quick reply. 

The week ending is the Fri of each week when i submit my timesheet to the umbrella company to bill for the weeks work. 

Thanks for the explanation, makes sense and hopefully get resolved. Never easy though to get to the bottom of it with them. 

chrisbur

What day are you paid on?
Is there a taxable pay to date figure on the 6 May payslip?
Regarding the NI that has been calculated as if 29/4 and 6/5 were both made in the same pay period.
Depending on circumstances this may not have been the correct procedure but it is the lower option so best not to query the NI.

molerat

Add everything together for those 2 weeks and the combined tax and NI figures are spot on for a single week with an X code. The more important question is why do you have an X suffix code ?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

molerat said:

Add everything together for those 2 weeks and the combined tax and NI figures are spot on for a single week with an X code. The more important question is why do you have an X suffix code ?

I suspect when the  ode was updated to include the S prefix and underpayment was calculated and the week one basis ensured it wasn't collected all in one payday.

alkanlelaan

thanks for everyones input into this, much appreciated. 

So the umbrella company has said because they paid me last Thursday, and then again yesterday, it falls into the same tax week so that is why i have paid more in tax. And that i need to contact HMRC to get my tax code changed to a cumulative one which will pick up the overpayment.

HMRC dont have the tax info from this weeks payment yet but confirmed im on the X tax code so they dont take all of the overpayment for the week when i was on the Non-Scottish tax code in the one go. They confirmed im due them £107 and they can change the tax code to a cumulative one now but it will mean that they will take this 107 underpayment in my next pay, or i can wait until they have the tax paid info for this week and then they will recalculate what is owed and then issue a new tax code. 

So itll wait until they have the tax info and hopefully ill get a little back and the tax code corrected. normally id leave it but when you got a wedding, new house payment coming up this summer every penny counts.

Thanks again for everyones help. 

chrisbur

Is this a permanent change of payday from Thursday to Tuesday?

Assuming this is a permanent change you have gross to date of £11485.64 as at week 5
Tax due on that on code S1294L is £3585.78
Tax paid to date from your listing is £3515.63
So £70.15 tax underpaid at the moment.

If you elect to go for the adjusted tax code I would suggest putting the details on here as their last change, if they intended to run it to the end of the tax year would have collected more than was owed.

alkanlelaan

The payday varies from week to week.

I submit a timesheet on Friday, it gets approved and will appear in my umbrella company for processing normally on Tuesday. I then get paid once they have processed it, majority of the time it is a Wednesday but last week was Thursday and this week for some reason they processed it early on a Tuesday. 

They have confirmed that they wont pay twice in the same tax week from now on but i still need to wait for HMRC to recieve the latest tax details to get the change made. 

So itll get sorted, just not today. 

Thanks again. 

chrisbur

alkanlelaan said:

The payday varies from week to week.

I submit a timesheet on Friday, it gets approved and will appear in my umbrella company for processing normally on Tuesday. I then get paid once they have processed it, majority of the time it is a Wednesday but last week was Thursday and this week for some reason they processed it early on a Tuesday. 

They have confirmed that they wont pay twice in the same tax week from now on but i still need to wait for HMRC to recieve the latest tax details to get the change made. 

So itll get sorted, just not today. 

Thanks again. 

Bit of a silly way to do things but you have benefitted from a reduced NI because of it.  Normally if you were on a cumulative tax code and were in this situation then next tax week would probably ( assuming back to Wed or Thur payday as this year tax weeks start on Wednesdays) have no wages to be paid and so would get a tax rebate.  Unfortunately no tax rebate can be paid while you are on a non-cumulative tax code.  You will eventually get the benefit of this blank week but not until either you go onto a cumulative tax code or your tax is checked after the tax year ends.  As I said earlier you are about £70 owing at the moment and you were about £70 up due to the NI and a cumulative tax code will ensure you get the allowances for the missing week; so might be a good time to request a cumulative tax code.

alkanlelaan

yeah as soon as i can with HMRC i will request the cumulative tax code. 

Only concern i had with changing it due to my lack of knowledge regarding the tax was that i was worried the tax taken next week would be more severe and id be left with less than this weeks wage but it should be fine.