massive increase in income tax this month??

[Taxxxx]

last month I was paid 150 more than this month. It seems this is due to an increase in income tax? I actually don’t know how I am going to cope, nursery has just gone up 129 a month too. I thought tax was supposed to be a tiny bit less in 2024, not substantially more?!

OP you are best asking payroll for an explanation.

It shouldn’t have increased based on ‘standard’ PAYE changes for this tax year, so it’s something specific to your organisation / that payroll have done.

OP, have you tried putting your salary information into MoneySavingExpert calculator and seeing if the post tax number is different to what is on your payslip?

If it is different, you can approach your HR for an explanation.

At that salary your NI would have been 2% last month. Back up to full rate in April

Not sure this is correct. Rate between 12 & 50k dropped from 10 to 8%, rate from 50k was 2% and still is. If anything op would be paying less NI.

@SkyBloo thanks I have done this and the only change is more income tax which has adjusted my net pay by the same amount. I will call Hr but assume it must be correct

Exactly what I was going to suggest, here’s the link:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/

If you are paying more tax compared to last month then likely your tax code has changed - compare this to last month.

Usually if your tax code has changed HMRC will notify you, either by letter or via the tax portal.

One thing springs to mind based on your salary above -> did you recieve child benefit which you now need to pay back?

Just seen - sorry - that your tax code hasn't changed.

Are you on an emergency tax code?

It’s not an emergency tax code it’s just my usual one, I’ve been on it for a long time @Magnastorm I had to pay back child benefit but did that in one lump sum already

My pay changes depending on whether it's a four or five week month, or maybe it's 28/29/30/31 day month. It's hardly ever the same amount even though I'm on an annual salary.

Get in touch with payroll if you're concerned.

If you are on a standard tax code, and your tax code hasn't changed then that is a weird one. I'd get onto your HR department and/or HMRC.

Are you in Scotland? Tax rates have shot up for the people the SNP wish to extort more money out of.

Where you on any different salary at any time during the 2023/2024 tax year,ie lower for any month

The reason I’m asking is tax is cumulative and will have been lower.

Send it to your payroll and ask them to clarify why it has changed. I would think there is a possibility it’s just a mistake if nothing on your payslip aside from your tax has altered

If you are in the U.K. you can below online calculator to check what your tax would ordinarily be though you need to complete details of taxable benefits, pension, childcare vouchers, student loan etc to get an accurate output

https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

My tax will go up when we move to new tax year because I overpaid when I got my bonus in September (it calculated as though that was my new salary and taxed at 40% but some of it should have been at 20% so past few months I’ve been getting that back and I won’t in the new tax year

The tax code says how much of your salary should be ignored before taking tax off the rest. So if salary is the same (ie the amount paid in this pay period, not your annual salary), and tax code is the same, the sum should give the same answer. Go to your payroll team, explain that your salary is the same, your tax code is the same, but the tax taken is higher, and ask them to explain.

If that fails, then I'm afraid you're stuck talking to HMRC.

The only thing I can think of is that if you're paid "monthly" rather than "4-weekly" some months would be 5 weeks and some 4 weeks. If you're on £63k. then that's £1211 per week, and an extra week's tax would be quite a lot. But if that were the case, the net salary should still be higher than last month.

Have you compared with payslips from 2/3/4 months ago.. just wondering if your last month one was unusually low tax rather than this one being higher iyswim

OP is asking a question, why the need to be so rude? Are you having a difficult day?

So In The financial year April 2023- March 2024 , did you also earn 63k?

Did you get 63k for the whole year last year?
If you (say) had 3 months unpaid leave April to June then your tax code would be the same but you wouldn't end up in the 40% bracket.
This year they will be assuming that you'll get paid 12x your April salary, which may not have been the case by the end of last year.

I was about to say this. it used to throw me every year.

Hi

Call your local tax office - seek info via employer.

I earn double that and would still investigate if I’d paid more tax than I was supposed to 🤷🏻‍♀️

If tax code hasn't changed it is likely to be you earning less last year as other posters have suggested
Is this the case?
First things first, again as already suggested use a salary calculator as these tend to be fairly accurate

Careful you don’t choke on that bitterness.