Will I pay tax on low income months?

[Meganjjb]

Hi, I’ve been given my tax breakdown for the year I’m taking off work. My last 3 months August-October will be unpaid.

I work for the NHS and our tax year is April to April.

Basically I want to know if I’ll pay tax on the months May, June & July as they are lower income. I find it all so confusing.

I’ve added the breakdown below

Everyone in the UK has the same tax year. If that is all our earnings that you expect April 2025 to April 2026 then you should not pay any tax - even for you April 2025 pay as that will fall into the 2025/2026 tax year. You should contact HMRC to make sure that they are aware - potentially they may debit tax for your April 2025 pay but that should be rebated.

Will you be working again in Nov 2025 ? Then you need to calculate how much you will earn from Nov to April 2026 to work out your full tax liability. - but given that the tax free allowance is £12570 the amount you should pay will be small, if there are pension deductions from your gross pay then is would probably take it to nil.

Tax is cumulative - so in April
You will pay tax based on higher earnings. , in May they will calculate the total tax you should pay for April and May (as in 1/6 of the years allowance) and adjust Mays tax to be correct, which may be a refund. I get a bonus in May so I get taxed super high that month as it takes me over a tax band and then I get some back following month as it calculates yrs.