Can I have more than one tax code?

[Fordian]

I'm 60 and retired from the NHS end of June, but started elsewhere (with an overlap).

I am claiming my 1995 section NHS pension.

I handed my P45 to my new employer.

First month's pay had a BR tax code, which I expected; 2nd month it's 1313L (I claim uniform laundering etc).

Just got my first pension payment notification from the NHS today; 'Advice of Payment' with 'tax code change' to 1164L.

So I have two different tax codes.

Is that correct?

Tax codes can change. You had BR for month 1, 1313L for month 2. You've now been notified that it will change again to 1164L. All normal. Nothing to worry about.

You get one tax allowance but it will need to be split between income sources, so if all your tax allowance is used up in employment then you will pay tax on all of your pension - BR - or vice versa.

Thanks. I think what has surprised me is that my NHS pension (£430 pm) isn't taxed, but my pay (gross is around £1200-1500 pm) is taxed at around 48%.

So my gross income is £1700 to £2000 pm and I'm losing 48% of it to tax.

Is that right?

You only have one "tax free" personal allowance of ~ £12.5k.

If you have two sources of income, i.e. an occupational pension and a job, you can have the entire £12.5k set against one or you can have it split between both. You don't get it twice on different income sources.

When you say "48% tax", does that include other deductions such as NIC etc or is it on your payslip as income tax.

It could be a "catch up" from a previous month, say, if both sources gave you a full tax code the month before, that would have been wrong, so your later payslip may show a "catching up" amount of tax which actually is for more than one month.

No one can help unless you're willing to share data from your payslips for both, i.e. the PAYE tax code exactly as shown on the payslips and the this period gross figures for both, gross to date figures for both, this period tax deducted for both and to date tax deducted for both.

It could also be due to "overlap", i.e. both previous and current employer using the full tax code in the same month. So we'd need details from your P45 too!

It can all get very confused when things change and you have multiple income sources. Almost certainly the 48% is some kind of catch up/correction from a previous month where the tax allowance was used in multiple payments and should settle down for future months.

You can always phone HMRC to ask them to check you're now on the right tax codes - they'll be able to see your wages/pensions for the last few months and should be able to get things corrected if wrong.

Thanks, I have been trying to contact the HMRC but the first message tells you 'yesterday's average wait was 45 mins'; so if you decide to persevere, you press whatever number (3?)- and the line goes dead! 🙄

The 48% was just on my pay, after NI was taken out.