question about tax on low income

[MumblesParty]

Can anyone help with tax advice?

DS is 18 and is home for the summer after his first year at university.

He has a term-time job in his uni town, which is sporadic, zero-hours contract bar work. He won't be working for them again until September but is still on their payroll.
He has now got a holiday job in a shop back at home, working 2 days a week.

His total income for the year will be about £4000. However, he's just had his first payslip from the shop job, and he's been taxed, despite his projected earnings being way lower than the threshold for tax.

Is this due to it being a second job? Has this happened to anyone else? I'm confused that he's being taxed when it's clear that even with 2 jobs, he'll earn way less than £12570. Lots of people have more than one job surely? Do they all get taxed even if their income is low? Is it just a case of waiting till the tax year ends and getting a rebate?

Obviously I've called HMRC but I'm just on hold for half an hour and then the automated voice says they're too busy and disconnects the call!

thanks

Does he have a tax code?

It's quite likely an emergency tax code as he won't have had a p45 as its a second job. He will need to call and ask for his tax free allowance to be split between the jobs I think. I had to do this and sometimes the overpaid tax is on your next payslip, sometimes you have to wait til April. Not sure why.

I’m sure I remember changing mine on my Gateway account. It then went to my payroll department and they changed it. I was quite impressed with how quickly it was done. Worth setting up an account maybe?

HMRC won't talk to you, he's a grown adult!

He will need to split his tax code between the two jobs . If he registers for the government gateway he can do this online .

🙄

Thank you for the helpful replies. Yes it's BR tax code, so likely an emergency basic rate code. He's got a gateway account so we can have a look at splitting the tax allowance over 2 jobs. I wasn't aware of that concept, so I'll give that a go.
@BusyCM yes he's 18 but this is a whole new world to him and he's needing my help, so he gives HMRC permission to speak to me and we have the calls on speaker-phone. I'm always baffled by the MN belief that on the morning of someone's 18th birthday they miraculously morph into a fully-functioning all-knowing adult!

BR code is an emergency one with no tax free allowance

https://brianalfred.co.uk/what-is-a-br-emergency-tax-code/

When he started the job he probably filled in a P46 and would have ticked the box saying I have another job, payroll department will then automatically put him on BR month/week 1 as per the rules.

He'll get the money back through his pay as soon as the tax code is sorted.

There's very little you can do when you start a 2nd job in the holidays other than lie and tick a box saying you don't have another job, so it's not anyone's fault.