Do you pay tax if you work 16 hours a week

[joey99]

For the last 3 years since maternity leave i have worked 18 hours a week over 2.5 days. Over lunch today my friend said she thought i wouldn't pay any tax or national insurance if i worked 16 hours a week and was i actually worse off doing 18 hours. Obviously this would save me hundreds of pounds a year if it is true -assuming i could negotiate doing a couple less hours a week. Does anyone know if this is correct. If it makes any difference i earn about 14.5k for the hours i do (29k full time job)
TIA

No sorry it's not true

You're taxed on the amount that you earn not the number of hours you work - sorry

It completely depends on your salary, not the number of hours you work.

the income tax personal allowance for the current tax year (2012-13) is £8105: earnings (including taxable benefits) below this level aren't subject to income tax; above it, the earnings are subject to 20% tax (unless your earnings are over £42,475 in which case a 40% tax rate applies).

NI thresholds are calculated on weekly earnings, and the thresholds are:

Primary limit (2012/13) £146
Upper earnings limit (2012/13) £817

And the rate for this tax year is 12% - therefore earnings between £146 and £817 are subject to NI contributions of 12%.

The number of hours you work may affect working tax credits though - I seem to think that there was a minimum requirement to work 16hrs/week in the past, but I don't know if this still applies.

That's great - thanks for clearing that up. I did think somebody would have pointed it out to me before now if that was true! Actually i am glad i haven't been working 2 extra hours a week just to pay the tax man hundreds of pounds for the last few years!

All on earnings I'm afraid. I work less than 16 hours a week on average (freelance) and do pay tax through self assessment.

Yakbutter - I think the rise to 24 hours is per couple rather than a single person.

I work 16 hours a week and I pay tax unfortunately. It goes income rather than hours worked.