Low income and paying tax

[confirmthat]

Forgive my ignorance please.

DS18 has been working for the last 5 months, part time hours up to around 30 hours per week, sometimes only around 21. Earns £10 per hour.

Should he be paying tax? He can't have reached his personal allowance threshold yet. Is it calculated as an average over the year, or is it as soon as he hits the threshold he starts to pay?

He's being taxed on his pay tomorrow and says he's been taxed before.

What tax code is he on?

does he have any other income?

are you sure it’s tax and not NI?

Tax code is S1257L

PAYE is £9.63 and then NI is detailed separately.

No other job.

Yes the tax code and his salary mean he will pay a small amount each month averaged out over the year. Otherwise he'd suddenly be hit with lots of tax when he reached £12000

They assume you'll work all year and so you basically get the first £1k of earnings tax free each month.

We've just had the end of the tax year so if he only worked a few months last year hell be getting a refund.

Probably a cheque but he can sign up to HMRC online and see his accounts, might not be too late to add a bank account.

This is one part of tax that works well, automatic refunds when you've overpaid.