Tax code change - huge drop

[ZoeTurtle]

I was a 993L tax code until May, when I got a company car. I knew I would then have a reduced tax-free allowance and calculated that I would lose around £100 a month.

I have finally been put on my new tax code (525T) and my pay has gone down by £550! Almost 50% of my basic salary has gone in tax and NI, where I should be a 20% tax payer. My basic is £28k.

I'm assuming HMRC have taken all the tax I should have paid from May-now in one go. Is this right? Can they do that? It was out of my control, as much as I badgered our finance team, because they had to send the correct information to HMRC. I expected the backdated tax to be taken in increments throughout the year.

Is there anything I can do? £550 is a lot to suddenly lose...

No you can't do anything but it was a catch up payment as you rightly assumed and next month it will not be so high.
They don't take it in small amounts anymore unfortunately

Grr. Thank you for the info.

I'm really annoyed because I've been bugging the finance manager for months to get my code changed and he's dragged his feet.

When youve got a spare hour, ring the tax office. Find out exactly what you owe. My oh code went up and down for 2 tax yrs.

You could have called hmrc to get the coding issued too. Not much help now but you definitely need the back up paperwork to ensure its all correct.