P800 - other adjustments

SoozyJ22

I've just returned home to a P800 from HMRC for 2021-2022 stating I owe £79 but I don't understand why. I'll give them a call next week but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone could help me understand what's gone wrong. Here's a breakdown of the letter:

Income
Employer 1 (elections staff one off payment): £200
Employer 2 (new job started March 2022): £431.81
Untaxed interest: £436
Total income: £1067.81

Less deductions
Charitable donations £317 - this will be a hangover from when I was a 40% tax payer previously. I don't believe the total amount this year is actually that high, and no gift aid has been claimed on any donations made since the start of the 2021 tax year.

Total income less total deductions: £750.81

Less allowances
Personal allowance: £12570.00
Total tax free amount: £12570.00
Total taxable income: £0.00

Plus other adjustments: £79 - I have no idea what this is

Result being £79 tax payable. 

The generic blurb talks about Adjustments being to do with married couple's allowance (not relevant), outstanding debt (no tax credits, previous tax years all correctly settled up) or tax relief related to loans (I've never had a loan). 

There's an "Explanation" section which says "you received more tax-free allowances than you were entitled to .This an happen if you change jobs in the middle of a week or month, or have more than one employer/pension provider during the tax year". Of course, this is the case, and may have caused an issue if my earnings were higher, but given I'm nowhere near hitting the personal allowance it shouldn't make any difference.

I've tried googling "Other Adjustments" but not found anything helpful. 

Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this? 

molerat

If you as a non tax payer declared to a charity you were donating to them via gift aid then you are responsible for paying back to HMRC the tax they have reclaimed.  £79 is 20% of (£319+£79) £398. Strange coincidence.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

SoozyJ22 said:

I've just returned home to a P800 from HMRC for 2021-2022 stating I owe £79 but I don't understand why. I'll give them a call next week but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone could help me understand what's gone wrong. Here's a breakdown of the letter:

Income
Employer 1 (elections staff one off payment): £200
Employer 2 (new job started March 2022): £431.81
Untaxed interest: £436
Total income: £1067.81

Less deductions
Charitable donations £317 - this will be a hangover from when I was a 40% tax payer previously. I don't believe the total amount this year is actually that high, and no gift aid has been claimed on any donations made since the start of the 2021 tax year.

Total income less total deductions: £750.81

Less allowances
Personal allowance: £12570.00
Total tax free amount: £12570.00
Total taxable income: £0.00

Plus other adjustments: £79 - I have no idea what this is

Result being £79 tax payable. 

The generic blurb talks about Adjustments being to do with married couple's allowance (not relevant), outstanding debt (no tax credits, previous tax years all correctly settled up) or tax relief related to loans (I've never had a loan). 

There's an "Explanation" section which says "you received more tax-free allowances than you were entitled to .This an happen if you change jobs in the middle of a week or month, or have more than one employer/pension provider during the tax year". Of course, this is the case, and may have caused an issue if my earnings were higher, but given I'm nowhere near hitting the personal allowance it shouldn't make any difference.

I've tried googling "Other Adjustments" but not found anything helpful. 

Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this? 

In this instance it will be the tax you owe on the Gift Aid.

As you haven't got a tax liability from your taxable income you are responsible for paying the £79 tax relief claimed by the charities.

Of course if that is an old figure you can provide HMRC with the actual amount relevant for 2021:22.

I would suggest you make it crystal clear what the net and gross amounts are to avoid any confusion at HMRC's end and this will you avoid getting another P800 you don't agree with.

Perhaps you could clarify exactly what you mean by this?

I don't believe the total amount this year is actually that high, and no gift aid has been claimed on any donations made since the start of the 2021 tax year.

SoozyJ22

Thanks both for doing the maths to work it out. It's a shame that the information I was sent didn't explain that. 

Since I knew I was unlikely to be earning enough to pay tax I've not ticked the gift aid box for any one off donations since the start of April 2021 and I notified the one charity I donate to by DD (just £10 a month) that they should no longer claim gift aid on my behalf.  I've checked my records for previous years and £317 was my value for 2018/2019 so not sure why it's using that instead of 19/20 or 20/21 but that seems to clear up the confusion.

Thanks again for your help. I'll call them next week to get it sorted out. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

SoozyJ22 said:

Thanks both for doing the maths to work it out. It's a shame that the information I was sent didn't explain that. 

Since I knew I was unlikely to be earning enough to pay tax I've not ticked the gift aid box for any one off donations since the start of April 2021 and I notified the one charity I donate to by DD (just £10 a month) that they should no longer claim gift aid on my behalf.  I've checked my records for previous years and £317 was my value for 2018/2019 so not sure why it's using that instead of 19/20 or 20/21 but that seems to clear up the confusion.

Thanks again for your help. I'll call them next week to get it sorted out. 

It probably depends on how you notified HMRC of the later years figures?

Was it on Self Assessment returns?

SoozyJ22

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

SoozyJ22 said:

Thanks both for doing the maths to work it out. It's a shame that the information I was sent didn't explain that. 

Since I knew I was unlikely to be earning enough to pay tax I've not ticked the gift aid box for any one off donations since the start of April 2021 and I notified the one charity I donate to by DD (just £10 a month) that they should no longer claim gift aid on my behalf.  I've checked my records for previous years and £317 was my value for 2018/2019 so not sure why it's using that instead of 19/20 or 20/21 but that seems to clear up the confusion.

Thanks again for your help. I'll call them next week to get it sorted out. 

It probably depends on how you notified HMRC of the later years figures?

Was it on Self Assessment returns?

No, I just wrote a letter every year with all my details (income, untaxed interest, donations, pension payments, P11D info etc) and they'd calculate my tax based on that. I'd have to dig out my paperwork to see what updates they made to my tax code each time, but the amounts were invariably different each year anyway so a new letter after the end of each tax year was always needed to iron out any discrepancies either way. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Odd, in that case I would have thought that whatever you notified them of for 2020:21 should have been used.

Unless that's still waiting to be dealt with 😳

SoozyJ22

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Odd, in that case I would have thought that whatever you notified them of for 2020:21 should have been used.

Unless that's still waiting to be dealt with 😳

I've already had a lovely refund from that year due to not working from the end of 2020 until the end of the tax year. So I'm not sure what's going on - I'll dig out my old paperwork over the weekend to see if I can work out what's happened.