A quick look at my Month 1 2011-12 payslip suggests I’m paying more tax than I was last month – Just £20 but thats 240 a year.

I thought we were sold some nonsense about an increased personal allowance giving us an additional £1000 untaxed ammount therefore 20% (lower rate payer) so approx £200 per year better off. Turns out this isnt the case with me – did they change any other limits?

Not as bad as my colleague who has had a £60pcm increase in her tax deduction.

£240 a year 😯

£240 increase I should have said.

they’ve also reduced the level at which you start to pay the higher rate, so it could be that.

no I’m on less than 35k (unfortuntley)

Compare your current tax code to last year’s – that might give you a clue

and you ni has risen…

tax code is 745L and last year 6??L something or other so thats right.

NI up too but not so much. Im not moaning as such just wondering why considering we were told by the tories it would go down 200 per year.

My tax code dropped from 564L last month to 440L this month.

No change in circumstances, no change in salary, no change in benefits.

Payroll department told me they have no idea why 🙄

Payroll department told me they have no idea why

did you not get a coding notice?

Payroll department told me they have no idea why

There is no reason why payroll would know as they only do what the taxman says, well that’s the theory. You need to speak to HMRC to find out why your code has been changed, although as uplink says you should have been notified.

You should have received a coding notice which explains how HMRC arrived at that code. If you’re underpaying now then you’ll probably be asked to repay it at some point in the future, although probably just through a higher tax code.

did you not get a coding notice?

Nope

Carbon, this is how you can check April’s tax:

Stick 5 onto the end of your tax code (745 becomes 7455)
This is your tax-free Personal Allowance for the year
Divide it by 12 to get your PA for the month
Deduct PA from gross salary
Tax the balance at 20%
This should be the amount deducted on your payslip, give or take £1

If it’s correct, then maybe there was something odd last year?

Its right your calculations are spot on.

So how last year did I pay less tax when i had a smaller allowance. Everything is the same salary wise. Im confused!

Sometimes it’s best not to ask!

Payroll department told me they have no idea why

Then they are complete ****.

Given the right information, I could probably tell you and if it still wasn’t apparent, then I would ring HMRC and they would spell it out – I did this in my previous employment and there was a simple explanation.

It’s not top secret information – your payroll dept are just being lazy.