Weird tax code

[goodmornsunshine]

Just looking at my payslips and noticed my tax code is not what I expected - it is 963L (I was expecting the standard 1250L)

I don't have a second job or any other form or income. Is this code incorrect and have I been paying too much tax? I have been at this company for just over a year.

Will of course speak to HR at work tomorrow but just wondered if anyone has any ideas!

Has it always been 963L? Maybe contact HMRC

@dementedpixie

Has it always been 963L? Maybe contact HMRC

It's been 963L the whole time I have been at this job but all my tax codes before have been the standard 1250L etc! I'll see what HR say tomorrow and then will give HMRC a try

HR will set it to whatever HMRC tell them. What does your tax code letter say it should be? It'll have a breakdown of all of the details that cause it to be different from the standard.

Do you have private health care, company car or any other benefits as part of your work perks?

Other possibilities...its an emergency tax code that HR haven't yet corrected , you have income from a private source, you receive alimony, child support or taxable benefits or youre repaying past incorrect benefits or a student loan ?

963L isn't emergency. Presumably HR just took this from your old jobs P45. And HR presumably haven't been contacted by HMRC with new tax code. The only way to resolve this is to ring HMRC tomorrow and find out why, and if they will issue a new tax code to your employer asap, for the February PayRun.

If it's been over a year, you would have been issued that new tax code for Apr 21 onwards, ending Apr 22. So that makes it even more wierd.

do you have a uniform allowance?

HR won't know why you have the tax code, the only thing I can see that they could do is check what they have from HMRC for you and make sure they haven't made a mistake but saying that with RTI your employer should have been told by now if it is wrong.

Have you underpaid something in a previous year? If you don't have another source of income that is the most likely in my experience.

Do you have a company car or other taxable benefits? This can result in a lower or even negative tax code.

You can log onto the Government Gateway (set up an account if you don’t have one). The Gateway will allow you to view your tax code which will show the breakdown of how your tax code has been calculated.

You can check what your tax code is online by logging into the Government Gateway and putting in all your salary details. This will tell you what your tax code should be and you can correct it here too if it’s incorrect.

Thank you! I didn't know you could see this on the GG site so this is a huge help - have just logged in and it says the reason I am overpaying on tax is because I underpaid by £700 in a previous year though it doesn't say when. Going to give them a call this week to clarify as I can't see when that would have been. Thanks everyone!

If you’ve changed employment in the previous tax year and received two pays in the same month (pay from your new employer and pay from your old employer in the same month) your tax free allowances would’ve been used by both employers causing the underpayment.

Depending on how much you earn, even a duplicate month wouldn't account for £700. That's quite a lot.