Tax return help! Very basic question

[Thehistorygirls]

I am filling in a tax return for the first time ever and I have no idea why - I earn nothing expect through my main job which is PAYE. But I've been asked to fill one in, so am doing so. I've entered all the information - which is basically just my salary tax, plus a tiny amount of interest on my savings account - and on the final sheet before I file it, it says 'total amount due' and a sum in the region of £5k. It says this will add this to my statement of account. What does this mean? Does it mean I owe them this money, or they owe it to me? And if so why?

Yes you’d owe £12570 at 40%. Seems correct.
You need to ensure also that your current code does not start with 12. Check it here gov.uk/personal-tax-account and update your estimated income if necessary.

@Shamoo is right. I’ve been stung by this the past couple of years - my personal allowance is now reduced.

You can definitely do the forms yourself and you have to do them once you start ripping abound the 100k mark.

@Thehistorygirls

I do earn significantly over 50k - I'm a high earner (approx £150k) and a recent one, so I assumed that was the reason for the tax return. But literally everything I earn is PAYE.

If you're a recent over £100k earner then it's very likely extra tax will be due because of the top rate tax and when it becomes effective in the year - it's generally settled down now but for the first few years employer's were not calculating it correctly and people often had thousands extra to pay.

So it might be right.

It’s the personal allowance. You shouldn’t be getting one and payroll gave you once hence the tax bill. You don’t need an accountant for this.

Thanks everyone - I have figured it out now and it looks like i was on the wrong tax code for a large part of the year which explains it.

I work for a big established company, they do something weird with my company car that meant I had put it on my tax return and I didn't need to.

I got caught with this too. Was told that what work do is "payroll" the car, so I shouldn't have put it on my return. Was a relief as it was telling me I owed over £6k!! When I only owed £600.

@Thehistorygirls

I do earn significantly over 50k - I'm a high earner (approx £150k) and a recent one, so I assumed that was the reason for the tax return. But literally everything I earn is PAYE.

If you earn over £100k then you will get asked to do a tax return

Just get an accountant.I dont understand the fucking language they use in tax return either.

Glad you sorted it.

So you really do owe the £5k?