Anyone know why I don't have to pay tax this year please?

[Whynotaxthisyear]

I just filled in my tax return for the year 2024/25, it being a very straightforward because I have pretty much retired now.

My income was £13,140.00, personal allowance £12,570.00, and the 'full calculation' after allowances etc shows:

Total income on which tax is due: £570.00

But then further down the page:

Starting rate: £570.00 x 0% £0.00

Please can anyone explain why I don't have to pay tax on this amount? I'm wondering if there is a mistake somewhere.

Thanks

Savings income has a starter rate of 0% so could be that.

What is your income made up of? Savings? Earnings? Something else?

What is the income made up of - is it earned income, interest on savings etc.?

Is some of your income interest on savings? Because you have an extra allowance of at least £1000 for that. (Probably more if that's all your income)

Yes, around 4K of that is income on savings. Would that explain it?

How is your income made up?

There are allowances for bank interest.

Yes it would

Should have said: approx breakdown
6,700 pension from employment
4,000 savings
2,000 rental income.

Yes, £1,000 allowance and there is a £5,000 starting rate for tax for bank interest.

Thanks very much everyone. I would have thought that the allowance for savings would have been included in the earlier calculations.

rental income - what type of rental? Tenanted property? Lodger in a spare room?

If its a lodger in a spare room then you don't pay tax on the first £7500

If its a tenanted property you can choose whether to have a £1000 or put in your expenses - so if your expenses are £700 its obviously better to use the £1000

You get £500 tax free on dividend and £1000 on savings interest

@Whynotaxthisyear is any of the savings interest from an ISA?

I would recommend looking at putting £20k in an ISA provided the rate is good and = current interest rate less tax.

The first £1000 savings income after your income corrected by your 12570 personal allowance is not taxed (or, technically, is taxed at 0%). “Savings nil rate band” So that covers the full £570 taxable income & owing no tax is correct

You only get the starting rate if your other income doesn't exceed £17,570.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings

yes we need to know the type of letting to know why the £2k of rental income is not taxed. It probably cannot be a full time annual letting as that would be vastly higher so it is probably under some kind of tax free rental room in the place where the landlord live scheme tax free.

Once you get your state pension(if you will be getting one) you might want the savings put into an ISA tax free as your state pension plus private pension income will take you over the personal tax band unless it goes up to £20k as was mooted in the press recently but very unlikely.

The rental income isn't being taxed because the pension + rental is below the personal allowance.

Annoyingly, most of the online self assessment calculators only do earnings but this one does have more income types like interest, rent, dividends etc which may have different allowances associated with them
taxgrid.co.uk

The rental is taxable but falls within the personal allowance
The breakdown is as follows:

Personal allowance 12,570
Salary 6,700 0%
Rental 2,000 0%
Interest 3,870 0%

Basic Rate Band
Starter rate for savings 130 0%