Does this amount of tax sound right?!

[WetBandits]

Have just opened my payslip, my basic pay is £29180 (middle point of band 5 NHS) and I’ve been paid £1350 this month 😟 that’s almost HALF my wage gone to the tax man! My tax code was different last month and it’s changed to 0T CUMUL now. I usually have about £700-£800 taken by the tax man which I still think is a lot but they’ve never taken this much before 😩 my bills come to barely less than that!

Have you changed jobs OP? That tax code takes away the personal allowance so won’t be accounting for that aspect of pay. Have you given them any other reason to change your tax code?

Why have they changed your tax code?

That doesn't sound right - I was taking home more than that in a job where my salary was much less than 29k.

It’s basically an ‘emergency tax code’, OP. They haven’t given you any personal allowance.

Has anything changed recently? You haven’t got a second job who’s started paying you, or anything like that?

Have raised a call with Payroll! God knows what they’re going to do to me next month when we get the lump sum 😶

Ah - I’ve been doing some flexi at the hospital I used to work at. I completely forgot about that!

Your tax code is wrong.

Oh. What's the tax code on that job?

Call HMRC. I had to when I changed jobs last year and they lost my p46 or whatever form you give them. HMRC were absolutely fantastic, explained what my issue was and he changed my tax code and my tax was refunded to me in the following months pay. I had been battling with HR for about 5 months and they never sorted it, 10 minutes with HMRC and it was all fixed.

Unless you have a second job which you don’t mention so assume not!

That’ll be it. You need them to be the job that doesn’t use your personal allowance. It can’t get used twice. Give their payroll a call too!

They’ll sort it but it’s a real PITA.

BR CUMUL

The irony is that I took a second job because my basic from my main job wasn’t enough to live on! Was taking home about £1550 with just one job, which I still don’t think is right.

My tax code for last month was 946L CUMUL and the month before it was 1257L CUMUL. Have attached my payslip from when it was 1257L and I didn’t have any other jobs to show deductions

No, you need to ring HMRC, even with a second job, they've changed it from 1257L which is the norm, to 946 to 0T. I suspect there's more to it than just the 2nd job. To put it to 0T is unusual. Are you sure there isn't issues relating to previous tax year, the Tax year 22/23 that has just finished?

Payroll wont be able to help you, they only apply the tax code HMRC tells them to. They wont be able to change it or tell you why HMRC sent a new tax code.
you need to ring HMRC and have them send an updated tax code

Nope, nothing at all! I started this job Jan 2022 and only started doing flexi shifts in the past month.

Just spoke to HMRC, they were fab! My personal allowance has been applied to my flexi job instead of my main job so she’s changed it so my personal allowance is applied to my main job and I’ll pay basic rate on flexi, refund will come in next month’s pay.