[gabbaman]

I've got a few questions about my tax as I think I might be entitled to a refund.

Basically, I left my old job for another, better paying one, in March 2008.

My tax code for this year (6 April 08 - 5 April 09) is 549L according to my PAYE Coding Notice letter. However, this has been calculated in January 09, I assume, on the assumption I was staying with my old company at a salary of £13,500 a year.

It also states that I would pay tax @ 20% on any earnings between £5435 and £34600

I started my new job on 10 March 2008 @ £18,500 a year. Should this mean I had a different tax code? The tax code on my payslips with my new employer was 543L.

As well as that, I ended up only staying at this job for around 6 months before leaving to go to University; I’ve not been in employment since. My final payslip from my employer (dated 22 August 2008) states under "Year to Date";

Gross Taxable Pay - £8150.53
Tax Paid - £1176.80

Now I assume that I was paying tax in a way that it will all even up to be the right amount if I was there for the whole tax year and therefore earned £18,500 over the course of the year.

As I've got a tax free allowance of about £5430 (Is that right, with a 543L taxcode?) that should mean that I only pay tax on what I earn over that amount? Which means the total amount I should pay tax on is roughly £8150 - £5430 = £2720. In which case I should get a refund of some of the tax I have paid, because if I have worked things out right, I've paid £1176.80 on a total taxable income over my allowance of £2720.

By my logic, if I have a total taxable income of around £2720, 20% of that would be £544. As I have paid a total of £1176.80 in tax, I should get a refund of approximately £1176-£544 = £632

Am I going along the right lines here? Or am I laughably off base? If anyone is really good at this sort of thing, do they have any idea what sort of refund I might be entitled to and when I might receive it if so?

As an aside, I've not had any other form of significant taxable income over the year either.

[cyslespitocop]

I've got a few questions about my tax as I think I might be entitled to a refund.

Basically, I left my old job for another, better paying one, in March 2008.

My tax code for this year (6 April 08 - 5 April 09) is 549L according to my PAYE Coding Notice letter. However, this has been calculated in January 09, I assume, on the assumption I was staying with my old company at a salary of £13,500 a year.

It also states that I would pay tax @ 20% on any earnings between £5435 and £34600

I started my new job on 10 March 2008 @ £18,500 a year. Should this mean I had a different tax code? The tax code on my payslips with my new employer was 543L.

As well as that, I ended up only staying at this job for around 6 months before leaving to go to University; I’ve not been in employment since. My final payslip from my employer (dated 22 August 2008) states under "Year to Date";

Gross Taxable Pay - £8150.53
Tax Paid - £1176.80

Now I assume that I was paying tax in a way that it will all even up to be the right amount if I was there for the whole tax year and therefore earned £18,500 over the course of the year.

As I've got a tax free allowance of about £5430 (Is that right, with a 543L taxcode?) that should mean that I only pay tax on what I earn over that amount? Which means the total amount I should pay tax on is roughly £8150 - £5430 = £2720. In which case I should get a refund of some of the tax I have paid, because if I have worked things out right, I've paid £1176.80 on a total taxable income over my allowance of £2720.

By my logic, if I have a total taxable income of around £2720, 20% of that would be £544. As I have paid a total of £1176.80 in tax, I should get a refund of approximately £1176-£544 = £632

Am I going along the right lines here? Or am I laughably off base? If anyone is really good at this sort of thing, do they have any idea what sort of refund I might be entitled to and when I might receive it if so?

As an aside, I've not had any other form of significant taxable income over the year either.

Sounds about right to me. I used to work with this stuff a few years ago and it doesn't sound like much has changed. I'm not 100% sure about the part where you were talking about evening up over the course of the year, but they would use expected earnings for tax code calculation. Sorry if I'm just repeating what you already know but, all you need to know to get a good estimate is to work out your annual earnings from april 1st 2008 to March 31st 2009, take off ~£5450 off that and multiply by whatever the tax rate is these days (20% you said, though I seem to remember it being less a couple of years back but that's not saying much!) and that will be roughly how much tax they will have been expecting you to pay for the year. If you paid less then they will want the money (and hassle you for it), if you paid more then they owe it to you...but won't usually tell you unless you ask for it! If you send anything by post, do it recorded delivery and hassle them constantly, I had nothing but bad experiences dealing with Inland Revenue.