Tax increase

[Pintsizedblondie197]

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can help me. I've just received my pay slip for this month, it was £15 less than it was last month despite nothing changing. When I've queried it with pay roll, they replied with this: There is a slight difference in the amount of tax you've paid due to the year to date figures as we are more than half way through the year.

I don't understand what this means. Could anyone explain for me please? I asked if it was a one off payment or if it would be £15 less going forward and she said it was the same every month. I have just paid my student loan off in August if that information is useful. Thanks in advance.

I'm a payroll manager and have to agree that's a pretty poor explanation!! Makes no sense at all...

Have you tipped into 40% tax at all? It's quite hard to give a definite answer without the information in front of you.

And no student loan doesn't affect tax :)

No, as I said before nothing has changed between one month and the next so I'm unsure why I'm suddenly paying £15 more tax a month. Glad it's not just me that doesn't understand it!!

Are you sure the tax code is exactly the same?

Yep - 1268L.

Pension?

If you've just been entered into the compulsory scheme then this may be your contribution. But doesn't explain the payroll managers description.

Do you want to post a pic of your payslip with all identifying items edited out?

Are you on a month 1 tax code?

Did you get a big bonus earlier on the year or do a bunch of overtime or something so now you have gone over the threshold (which is different where I am in Scotland to England)? Perhaps like others said your pension contributions have increased as you’ve gone over a certain amount of earnings?

You deserve a proper explanation. She obviously doesn’t understand why either so you need to ask someone who does.

I would honestly just go back to them and ask for a more comprehensive explanation.

If your pay is consistently the same and no tax code change then you shouldn't see any difference (except for 20p here and there for rounding on the table method).

Everything else, pension, NI contributions are the same. I haven't received any bonuses this year either. I've been in the same place of employment for 5 years. I'm baffled!

Without seeing the payslips it's impossible to tell. You need to speak to your payroll department again

Which bit do I need to screenshot and I'll put it on?

Check your tax to date calculation and see if that's correct.
Do the same on last month's pay slip.
If nothing at all has changed and PAYE has been correctly applied each month there shouldn't be a change, if that's the case it implies there is a calculation error somewhere - either previously or this month.
I more track of tax codes as I'm always working a year behind with tax returns, but 1268 isn't a standard code, what have you got added to it?

I'm an accountant, you can email me your payslips if you want and I will have a look [email protected]

I added in my union subscription.