Why would my paye tax just double?

sheramber

Because you were paid monthly previously all your personal allowance was set against  your earnings up to the date of leaving. Month 12 shown on your payslip. 
If you only got one week’s wages from your old employer you got one month’s allowances set against one week’s wages.  The  benefit of that was you paid a small amount of tax. 

But, As a result, you have no allowances left for any further earnings until the end of the tax year on 5 April. 

chrisbur

Veteransaver said:

Could it be something to do with being week 53 at all? Leap year etc?

Not this payment a week 53 occurs when payday falls on the 5th April or if it is a leap year on 4th or 5th April. As 2024 is a leap year and the 4th and 5th April fall on Thursday and Friday I would expect nearly all weekly paid employees will have a week 53 this year. All employees whose payday falls on Thursday or Friday will be given one week's extra tax allowance for this payment .  In my day this was then forgotten about unless HMRC did a tax calculation for example a self assessment but not sure what happens now.  A few years ago a week 56 occurred for a lot of four weekly paid people and HMRC adjusted their tax codes for the following year to take back the extra 4 weeks tax allowance they were given. One week's worth might still not be worth bothering about.  

penners324

Have you got an online tax account with hmrc?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

chrisbur said:

Veteransaver said:

Could it be something to do with being week 53 at all? Leap year etc?

Not this payment a week 53 occurs when payday falls on the 5th April or if it is a leap year on 4th or 5th April. As 2024 is a leap year and the 4th and 5th April fall on Thursday and Friday I would expect nearly all weekly paid employees will have a week 53 this year. All employees whose payday falls on Thursday or Friday will be given one week's extra tax allowance for this payment .  In my day this was then forgotten about unless HMRC did a tax calculation for example a self assessment but not sure what happens now.  A few years ago a week 56 occurred for a lot of four weekly paid people and HMRC adjusted their tax codes for the following year to take back the extra 4 weeks tax allowance they were given. One week's worth might still not be worth bothering about.  

Someone recently posted on another board about some issues they were having getting a refund and said HMRC told them they didn't issue refunds for less than £50.

After speaking to someone else it turned out the first person had, unsurprisingly, got it wrong and it was really £10 (but if you asked you could still have a small refund).

The £50 was for tax owed.

So I suspect those people with 1257L code and a week 53 payment will have to pay it back this time.

chrisbur

Looking at some figures the OP has posted earlier....
P45 from old job
Gross 21980.10
Tax 1880

WK 52 payday in new job
Gross 440
Tax
88

So at end of week 52 we have 
Gross  22420.10
Tax 1968

The OP did contact HMRC I wonder if some automatic system (possibly even AI) was triggered to check and if needed adjust the OP's tax position, along the lines of....

Gross 22420.10 less tax allowance of 12570 is 9850.10
20% of 9850 is 1970 tax due
Deduct tax paid of 1968 leaves £2 under-deducted
This would then need a reduction in code of one place (ie 1257L becomes 1256L)

Or am I just paranoid?

EDIT  Paranoid and clumsy this should have been on this thread 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6520256/1256l-tax-code/p1

Marcon

Marcon said:

n1guy said:

Hoenir said:

Tax due is calculated on a cumulative basis throughout the tax year. Highly unlikely the calculation is wrong.  What were the figures on your P45. 

Month number

12  

Total pay to date

£21,539.42

Total tax to date

£1,792.00

And on this weeks payslip 

Total gross pay 21.996.98

Gross for tax 21.980.10

Tax paid 1.880.00

'Month 12' means that your last job used up all of your year's tax free allowance, so your whole pay for this one week in your new job was taxed at basic rate. £440 x 20% tax = £88 tax. The same thing will happen for the next week.

Once we get to 6 April, you'll have another year's tax free allowance and your tax deduction will drop down again.

n1guy said:

So I recently started a new job, gave P45 etc so not on emergency code.  Same hours and pay as last job,  my last job I had been paying around £44 per week tax,  today £110 including national insurance, tax £88.  Put it this way by the time this is factored in I’m earning below min wage and I’m earning £12 per hour.  

It’s not HR fault, it’s HMRC, I have tried all day to get an answer and have got no where,  they cut me off after waiting 70min, someone finally answered put me on hold then dumped me,  came across a live chat and got such helpful replies as you earned xxxx so you have to pay tax, everyone working pays tax.  

Anyone able to help?

Minimum wage is based on gross pay, so you aren't earning below the minimum.

It's not anyone's 'fault'. Your previous employer applied the whole of your 2023/24 personal allowance to your earnings from them, so there's nothing further your new employer can do except work from the figures on your P45. I'm surprised HR couldn't explain that to you.

It's been answered (see above) so not sure what point you're making?