Students & Claiming Tax back

DarkShadow · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:34

I'm looking for some advice here, so if you have anything to contribute it would be mucho appreciated.

End of October I started part time employment, my annual salary is below the threshold of being taxed. Now I was on emergency tax for at least 5-6 months. Now during that period the tax had now totalled above £600.

As of last month my pay check was tax-free which is good news.

Now how would I go about claiming my last 5-6 months?

Thanks

Vixen · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:38

Contact your local tax office, they should be able to sort it out for you. If you're not still with the same employer, you'll need your p45.

Biohazard · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:38

0845 010 9000

Phone that.

HMRC (Tax people) Helpline.

DarkShadow · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:42

I forgot to add, I'm with the same employer.

Thanks for the helpful advice so far. Will I be able to claim all of my tax back?

Also how is tax calculated? Is it by the year or by the month? Reason being, I plan to rack up a bit of overtime throughout summer

furnace · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:43

When you phone them just tell them you think you've been paying too much tax, they'll ask you for details etc, and they'll sort out the rest

Blackstar · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:46

If your last pay check was tax free that usually means they are sorting out the tax by not charging you any more until the money they owe you is paid back.

edit: This is what happened to me, i handed my employer my p45 and they managed to mess up and i was on an emergancy tax code for 7 months before it was sorted.

Vixen · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:47

Blackstar said:
If your last pay check was tax free that usually means they are sorting out the tax by not charging you any more until the money they owe you is paid back.

Students below the threshold shouldn't be charged tax at all though.

Guv · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:47

dark_shadow said:
Also how is tax calculated? Is it by the year or by the month? Reason being, I plan to rack up a bit of overtime throughout summer

Usually calculated on a monthly basis

Biohazard · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:49

Blackstar said:
If your last pay check was tax free that usually means they are sorting out the tax by not charging you any more until the money they owe you is paid back.

Depends how much you earn, and how much they HMRC owe you.

Normally, you'd end up just paying significantly less for a period of time, possibly the rest of the financial year.. There are tax table that help payroll administrators apply new tax codes implimented by the NIC office or whoever does that side.

Blackstar · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:51

Vixen said:
Students below the threshold shouldn't be charged tax at all though.

I should probably look into this then, i'll be quite annoyied if i'm being charged when i shouldn't be. Thanks Vixen.

Guv · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:54

Students working during a holiday can fill in a P38 so they won't be taxed, as long as their income is less than the personal allowance.

However if they're working throughout the whole year I thought they still got taxed like anyone else? (I could be wrong though)

DarkShadow · 26 Apr 2007 at 19:56

Blackstar said:
If your last pay check was tax free that usually means they are sorting out the tax by not charging you any more until the money they owe you is paid back.

edit: This is what happened to me, i handed my employer my p45 and they managed to mess up and i was on an emergency tax code for 7 months before it was sorted.

We work at the same company, co-incidence?

Vixen · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:01

Guv said:
Students working during a holiday can fill in a P38 so they won't be taxed, as long as their income is less than the personal allowance.

However if they're working throughout the whole year I thought they still got taxed like anyone else? (I could be wrong though)

No, it's based on how much you earn per tax year. I believe it's up to around £2k tax free, but I'm not sure.
Tax and NI are calculated on how much is earned per month, so if you do a lot of overtime in the summer, you will be charged tax and NI based on your salary for that month x 12. If, however, you earn below the threshold over the whole year, you will be due tax back. NI contributions are non-refundable though

.

Chronos-X · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:03

They used to send me rebate cheques every year, usually after asking "we just want to check you weren't working in this period"... couple of weeks later you'd get a couple of hundred quid, which as a student, was quite exciting

Blackstar · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:07

dark_shadow said:
We work at the same company, co-incidence?

Probably not they are pretty crap when it comes to paying people.

Guv · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:08

Vixen said:
No, it's based on how much you earn per tax year. I believe it's up to around £2k tax free, but I'm not sure.
Tax and NI are calculated on how much is earned per month, so if you do a lot of overtime in the summer, you will be charged tax and NI based on your salary for that month x 12. If, however, you earn below the threshold over the whole year, you will be due tax back. NI contributions are non-refundable though .

The income tax personal allowance is £5,225 per year for tax year 07/08 for most people, but yeah calculated on a monthy basis. I understand how tax and NI are calculated. So you agree students working over the whole year will be taxed like non-students? and students only working a few months over a holiday need to fill in a P38 to avoid being taxed as long as they expect their income to be below £5,225?

Glaucus · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:12

Students are taxed the same as everyone else around £5300 tax free. However if you work only in holiday or part time and think you will earn under the tax limit you can sign a form (p38) and they wont tax you until you go over the limit.

To claim tax back just phone or visit your local tax office, they will send you a form fill it in with jobs and pay and a few weeks latter you get a nice cheque.

Vixen · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:18

Guv said:
The income tax personal allowance is £5,225 per year for tax year 07/08 for most people, but yeah calculated on a monthy basis. I understand how tax and NI are calculated. So you agree students working over the whole year will be taxed like non-students? and students only working a few months over a holiday need to fill in a P38 to avoid being taxed as long as they expect their income to be below £5,225?

No, it doesn't matter when you work. A student doing a Saturday job (eg Blackstar) will never make more than the threshold without significant overtime, so they should never pay tax.

Guv · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:24

Vixen said:
No, it doesn't matter when you work. A student doing a Saturday job (eg Blackstar) will never make more than the threshold without significant overtime, so they should never pay tax.

I agree, as long as they are on the correct tax code then they won't pay any tax.
The emeregency tax code for tax year 06/07 was 503L and for 07/08 it's 522L, that gives a monthly allowance of £435ish for 07/08.
For most people this is the same tax code they will stay on anyway even when their employer or HMRC have sorted things out properly.

So, if a student like Blackstar is paying tax and is on the emergency tax code they must be earning over £435ish a month.

The tax code would change if they have other benefits or allowances available to them.

This is the same for anyone, student or not.

makeshiftwings · 26 Apr 2007 at 20:57

What about when working abroad?