Income tax whilst below basic rate

Rhubarb_Soda

Hello, and thank you for any help I might get .

Today I noticed on my payslip that I paid roughly £100 on a monthly gross income of £1900 or so that was labelled simply "tax".
To this point in the financial year I have made less than £7000 and was under the impression that I would not pay income tax until I was out of the personal allowance and into the basic rate at around £12500.
Is there some other type of tax I'm paying that I'm not aware of or is this a mistake on my employers end ? It's been happening for a few months but I've only just been able to properly view my payslip as I didn't have a laptop .I'm paying pension contributions and national insurance in addition to this , have had no other employer this tax year and no self employed income 
Thank you again.

la531983

You have misunderstood how the tax system works sadly. 
Your personal allowance is split monthly, it doesn't work in the way you describe. So by the end of August which is 5/12ths into the year you will have paid tax if your gross  income is over approx. £5250, which you now have gone over. This assumes you are on the usual tax code most people are on (1257L)
It should correct itself through the rest of the year assuming your wages aren't as high going forward. If you barely work in September you may find you get most of that £100 back as a credit on your wageslip.

Rhubarb_Soda

Hello , thank you for your help and very swift reply .
If I may ask for a clarification.
Assuming an income of £2000 per month for the sake of my understanding and a personal tax allowance of £12570 . 
£12570 divided by 12 months is 1047.50 and that per month is the personal allowance and therefore not taxed .
Then the remaining £ £952.50 is taxed at the 20% basic rate so in a £2000 monthly income, income tax would be £190.50.
Did I understand this correctly?
Thank you again.

la531983

Rhubarb_Soda said:

Hello , thank you for your help and very swift reply .
If I may ask for a clarification.
Assuming an income of £2000 per month for the sake of my understanding and a personal tax allowance of £12570 . 
£12570 divided by 12 months is 1047.50 and that per month is the personal allowance and therefore not taxed .
Then the remaining £ £952.50 is taxed at the 20% basic rate so in a £2000 monthly income, income tax would be £190.50.
Did I understand this correctly?
Thank you again.

Assuming you don't have pension or other deductions taken out before the tax is applied: yes. 

This is a decent online calculator... 
https://listentotaxman.com/

Be aware though that calculator is assuming the monthly figures on the basis that you earn the same every month, I assume in your case that isn't happening. 

molerat

Correct.  Except under PAYE your monthly tax free allowance is £1048.26, you get an extra £9 on top of the £12570.

Rhubarb_Soda

Thank you all so much , this information has eased my mind quite a lot as I was seriously worried about losing 20% of my income on top of other deductions . I was unaware this is how it worked .