I need help with my tax I pay as an employee

Idontlikeworking

Would anyone know  why I pay 20p more tax every 3 or 4 weeks when my wages are the same each week.

Today I received a letter from HMRC to say I owe them £50.40 from the 6th april 2023 to the 5th april 2024 but how is this possible when they take the tax from my wages each week.

JGB1955

If your pay is (say) £400.25 a week, every 4 weeks an additional £1 of income will be accumulated - taxed at 20%.  Income Tax is only paid on whole pounds.

Penguin_

Idontlikeworking said:

Would anyone know  why I pay 20p more tax every 3 or 4 weeks when my wages are the same each week.

Today I received a letter from HMRC to say I owe them £50.40 from the 6th april 2023 to the 5th april 2024 but how is this possible when they take the tax from my wages each week.

Do you receive any benefits through your employment such as medical cover?

Idontlikeworking

Penguin_ said:

Idontlikeworking said:

Would anyone know  why I pay 20p more tax every 3 or 4 weeks when my wages are the same each week.

Today I received a letter from HMRC to say I owe them £50.40 from the 6th april 2023 to the 5th april 2024 but how is this possible when they take the tax from my wages each week.

Do you receive any benefits through your employment such as medical cover?

No I don't receive any benefits

Penguin_

It might be worth checking your personal tax account on HMRCs government gateway & ensure the figures there match your P60.

Idontlikeworking

JGB1955 said:

If your pay is (say) £400.25 a week, every 4 weeks an additional £1 of income will be accumulated - taxed at 20%.  Income Tax is only paid on whole pounds.

My pay is £602.32 a week and after deductions I take home £478.68 or £478.48 every 3 or 4 weeks.

born_again

Do you have savings that might take you over the savings limit & require taxing on the excess?

Brie

HMRC don't take the tax from your pay.  Your employer uses the code supplied by HMRC and then calculates the tax that needs to be paid.  So if the employer gets something wrong or you earn a bit too much over the course of the year or one of your deductions changes then you might owe some money.  

Marcon

See https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/160i719/why_have_i_paid_slightly_more_tax_this_month/ where someone else asked the same question about a year ago, so clearly you aren't alone!

chrisbur

Idontlikeworking said:

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Today I received a letter from HMRC to say I owe them £50.40 from the 6th april 2023 to the 5th april 2024 but how is this possible when they take the tax from my wages each week.

This sounds like you have had one week extra tax allowance.  I am assuming you are on code 1257L which would give an underpayment of about £48.4 and then added to that would be the £2 aprox. that most people underpay on PAYE.  If that is the case then the two most common causes for that are....
You change jobs and as a result you have an overlap of tax allowances so that both employers give you the same allowance for one tax week.
You had a week 53 payment in that tax year, which would occur if your last  payday for the tax year fell on either fourth or fifth of April.  *(If this is the case I would expect there to be quite a few affected for 23/24 as fourth and fifth fell on Thursday and Friday; probably the two most common paydays for weekly paid employees)
If neither fit can you advise the calculation given by HMRC to arrive at this figure.

*()  EDIT