£440 tax refund, shows up as ‘Tax deducted: -440.14’ and added to my total pay for last week…Is this legit? The problem is they only paid me for 2 shifts so I’m still owed for 1 more from a week earlier so I don’t want to call them if they messed up with the £440, I’ll take that ty very much but if that’s legit money owed to me by HMRC (who decided to return it to me via…some agency??) then I want my shift paid, lol. What do??
Did you work less than a full year in the 2018-2019 tax year? If so then that will be why.
Harry Monk:
Did you work less than a full year in the 2018-2019 tax year? If so then that will be why.
You mean 2019-2020? I already got my tax refund for 2018-2019 last year from the HMRC itself.
ETS:
Harry Monk:
Did you work less than a full year in the 2018-2019 tax year? If so then that will be why.You mean 2019-2020? I already got my tax refund for 2018-2019 last year from the HMRC itself.
No, 2019-2020 tax year hasn’t finished yet.
I had this a few times over the years. It will be legit, but also nothing to do with the agency you’ve just started working for.
HMRC will have predicted how much you would earn this financial year based off last years earnings, therefore been able to predict how much tax you would be likely to pay, and divide this equally between your pay periods.
This happens quite often when working on agency as work and pay fluctuates, so you might have earned slightly less than last year, or at least then than HMRC expected, so you get this rebate as a correction.
Long story short, it’s your money, enjoy your rebate!
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
CookieMonster:
Long story short, it’s your money, enjoy your rebate!Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
We’ll see, hopefully they (HMRC) won’t come knocking on my door pointing to a large, empty duffle bag. Also it’s not a new agency, I did work for them from April until June, it’s just that now they’re using a different payroll company. They’re still showing the (correct) total £££ I’ve made so far with them in 2019/20
I’ve had a couple of hundred back recently, probably for the same reason
ETS:
£440 tax refund, shows up as ‘Tax deducted: -440.14’ and added to my total pay for last week…Is this legit? The problem is they only paid me for 2 shifts so I’m still owed for 1 more from a week earlier so I don’t want to call them if they messed up with the £440, I’ll take that ty very much but if that’s legit money owed to me by HMRC (who decided to return it to me via…some agency??) then I want my shift paid, lol. What do??
I got this last year, as I worked November-March for both Royal Mail and Waitrose via agency. The work I did at RM was taxed @ 40%…
When I left RM and went to exclusively waitrose come March, I got a big tax rebate paid as a - figure on my agency waitrose payslip at the end of the same month…
I’d overpaid at 40%, since my year-end earnings - ended up being around 36k - way below the threshold for the higher tax rate that I’d already been deducted for as “Emergency coding - second job”…
Had I worked at both places for the entire tax year on the other hand, the tax deducted would have been correct - which is why “emergency coding” is often referred to as “Week One/Month One” or simply W1/M1 on pay slops. It assumes your year-end earnings if you continued earning at this rate all tax year round - will easily exceed the higher tax threshold. Working that rate for only part of a year - gets you the rebate described.
It is perfectly normal these days to be paid tax rebates as a refund on one’s pay…
In fact, I got paid a rebate slightly too much, as it turns out - so I’ve now been asked to pay around 300 of 1400 back again, which is going to be deducted by reducing my tax code figure by 150 for year coming 2020-21. 
ETS:
£440 tax refund, shows up as ‘Tax deducted: -440.14’ and added to my total pay for last week…Is this legit? The problem is they only paid me for 2 shifts so I’m still owed for 1 more from a week earlier so I don’t want to call them if they messed up with the £440, I’ll take that ty very much but if that’s legit money owed to me by HMRC (who decided to return it to me via…some agency??) then I want my shift paid, lol. What do??
Its a drop in the ocean, don’t worry.
This can happen for a few reasons as Winseer has pointed out accurately. Here is my spin, which may be of some help.
One reason might be a change of tax code. If you are registered and earning through a few different employers, HMRC can decide to put you on 40% (on all your earnings) on one of them for example. There was one year I couldn’t really be bothered sorting it out, but I got a big chunk back at the end of the year, which was nice. If you have a second job, you can also get put on straight 20% for that one, because your tax-free allowance is allocated to your main job.
Another might be because your income has fluctuated.
In terms of PAYE, when you start paying tax at the beginning of the year, they will go on the basis that you will be earning roughly the same for the full year and charge tax appropriately. Obviously strictly speaking for the first while in the tax year you haven’t yet reached the threshold where tax is due. If your income doesn’t turn out to average what you were earning at the beginning, you will have paid too much tax. If you are working for one employer and their payroll system is fairly good, you should end up having paid the correct tax at the end of the year, even if your income fluctuates.
Amazed that people don’t understand their tax codes and how much they should be paying.
I had the opposite…
I got a notice saying I owed about £55 which will be taken from next years pay through tax code alteration.
What I dont get is how, I’ve been PAYE all year in the same job… so why was there a shortfall? Nothing I noticed seemed put of the ordinary although in fairness would I really notice my tac was wrong by a quid or so a week?
Harry Monk:
ETS:
Harry Monk:
Did you work less than a full year in the 2018-2019 tax year? If so then that will be why.You mean 2019-2020? I already got my tax refund for 2018-2019 last year from the HMRC itself.
No, 2019-2020 tax year hasn’t finished yet.
if you haven’t earnt your full tax free amount 2019-2020 you will get a refund through your employer (the agency in this case) the tax office see that you have paid too much tax and send a notice to the employer.
same situation if you have changed agencies or employers but didn’t earn your full tax free allowance for this year in the previous job.
Im guessing what happens is you start a new job at a new agency and give them your p45 from the last one they then take a blue age to send it into HMRC who in turn take a blue age to process it and send out the relevant info to your new employer who again takes a blue age entering the info into their payroll system. In the meantime you have worked for several weeks and been paying tax because the computer said so. so you get it back on your wages when it finally sorts itself out.
you can check your tax account and stamp contributions with the government gateway site. You might have to sign up for a gateway account but its free
hope this helps
Coop
Noremac:
This can happen for a few reasons as Winseer has pointed out accurately. Here is my spin, which may be of some help.One reason might be a change of tax code. If you are registered and earning through a few different employers, HMRC can decide to put you on 40% (on all your earnings) on one of them for example. There was one year I couldn’t really be bothered sorting it out, but I got a big chunk back at the end of the year, which was nice. If you have a second job, you can also get put on straight 20% for that one, because your tax-free allowance is allocated to your main job.
Another might be because your income has fluctuated.
In terms of PAYE, when you start paying tax at the beginning of the year, they will go on the basis that you will be earning roughly the same for the full year and charge tax appropriately. Obviously strictly speaking for the first while in the tax year you haven’t yet reached the threshold where tax is due. If your income doesn’t turn out to average what you were earning at the beginning, you will have paid too much tax. If you are working for one employer and their payroll system is fairly good, you should end up having paid the correct tax at the end of the year, even if your income fluctuates.
Thanks for this but I already understand most of the tax calculation; my concern (rather, surprise) was that I got money via an agency. What usually happens is I will get taxed weekly (sometimes a higher %) but at the end of the tax year or rather much later, HMRC send me a letter in which they point out if and by how much I’ve overpaid tax, then send me a check for that amount (in the past, now I just log on my gov.uk tax account and give them my bank details, money arrives within 2-3 days)
I just find it strange that the HMRC instructed the agency (actually the agency’s payroll company) to pay me that money as a tax refund on their behalf. Governments are usually not very keen on paying their bills on time (hence the 4-6 months after April it normally takes them to pay back any overpaid tax) 
ETS:
Thanks for this but I already understand most of the tax calculation; my concern (rather, surprise) was that I got money via an agency. What usually happens is I will get taxed weekly (sometimes a higher %) but at the end of the tax year or rather much later, HMRC send me a letter in which they point out if and by how much I’ve overpaid tax, then send me a check for that amount (in the past, now I just log on my gov.uk tax account and give them my bank details, money arrives within 2-3 days)I just find it strange that the HMRC instructed the agency (actually the agency’s payroll company) to pay me that money as a tax refund on their behalf. Governments are usually not very keen on paying their bills on time (hence the 4-6 months after April it normally takes them to pay back any overpaid tax)
It does seem like quite a large tax rebate thinking about it.
If you have had an employment that has ended, the information does filter through to HMRC and they may use it to decide / update tax codes.
Was there a jump in year-to-date figures on your payslips?
toonsy:
I had the opposite…I got a notice saying I owed about £55 which will be taken from next years pay through tax code alteration.
What I dont get is how, I’ve been PAYE all year in the same job… so why was there a shortfall? Nothing I noticed seemed put of the ordinary although in fairness would I really notice my tac was wrong by a quid or so a week?
I got similar although there was a shortfall of £600, the bloody umbrella company still haven’t fixed it the ■■■■■■ Going on agency PAYE this week as I’m not getting handed a huge tax bill. Thankfully my full time job allowance has been cut right down so the shortfall won’t be as painful when it’s finally sorted
Want another rebate? If your married and your other half doesnt use her tax allowance you can get it transferred to yours, they go back 6 years i think so it can be a good few hundred gov.uk/marriage-allowance
shullbit:
Want another rebate? If your married and your other half doesnt use her tax allowance you can get it transferred to yours, they go back 6 years i think so it can be a good few hundred gov.uk/marriage-allowance
I did that. My pensions were taxable but my wife wasn’t earning enough to pay any, so I applied for the rebate. I got a bit straight off and then a new code which meant I paid about £200 a year less tax. All was well until my wife got a raise. It was well into the following tax year before it dawned on me to tell them, which meant that I had to pay some back, but no matter.
The following February, she gets a letter saying that because she was “self-employed” (she wasn’t btw) she owed the £100 plus. I got on the phone and thought it was sorted out, but last year they sent another charge. I phoned again and thought it was sorted, but blow me down if they didn’t want to charge her £100 for a late tax return this year. I despair.
The manager at HMRC I spoke to assured me that this was the end of the problem and I have a letter from her saying so - we shall see.