Tax Rebates & Refunds

Full time students rarely earn enough to be eligible to pay tax

Chris — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:12:01 +0000

When you are a full time student, it can be very difficult to get enough hours outside of the time you devote to study and to socialising to work a job. However, most students do find that they need to have a job while they study rather than getting by on student loans and whatever they manage to earn over the summer.

The fact is that students are subject to the same rules as everyone else when it comes to paying tax. If you earn over the free tax allowance threshold then you have to contribute a portion of your earnings to the tax man. Being in full time study does not exempt you from this rule and this is something you must be aware of.

However, since you are already struggling for time so that you can get enough hours to get by on while you are at university, it is really unlikely that you will actually earn over the free tax allowance threshold. If you are taxed without earning over this threshold then a mistake has been made somewhere and you need to act to get a tax refund.

The chain of communication that ensures you are taxed correctly

Jennifer — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:11:39 +0000

The HMRC obviously relies on having complete information about your employment status in order to work out how much tax you ought to be paying if any at all. This is why your national insurance number is used so widely. When you start a new job, begin receiving dole payments, become a student and so on, you are likely to give your national insurance number to make everything transparent.

This is usually the method by which the HMRC learn about your movements, although they also rely on all sorts of other documentation to clarify things and to get a full picture of your employment status so that the correct tax code is applied to your earnings and you are taxed precisely what you are expecting to be taxed.

If you are not, there is a very real chance that the chain has been broken somewhere and an important piece of information has not made it to the HMRC so that they can take it into account. To set things straight, it is worth using a tax agency skilled in the delivery of tax refunds.

Overturning the application of an emergency tax code

Geoffrey — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:11:14 +0000

Emergency tax is something that some people go their entire professional lives without coming across. The fact is that in many cases, emergency tax just never becomes an issue because people’s professional circumstances are very uncomplicated. They have a single job at a time, their employers maintain contact with the HMRC and everything is completely transparent.

However, it is not difficult for something to go awry in the chain of events involved in charging you the right amount of tax. It may be that the HMRC has incomplete information regarding your employment status. It may be that your employers have not been in contact with them regarding certain information. It may simply be because of an error with the data the HMRC has received.

Whatever happens, the situation is likely to result in the application of the wrong tax code, which may issue a request for emergency tax on your earnings leaving you with less money than you ought to have at your disposal when you get paid. The way to sort this out is to use a tax agency and make the HMRC fully aware of what needs to change and what needs to be repaid.

Earning below the tax threshold at university

Chris — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:10:52 +0000

If you spent time at university in the last six years and you worked a job at the same time, it is worth digging out any documentation you have related to the years you spent in full time study. This documentation will tell you whether you paid tax on any of your earnings. The fact is that when you are at university you are just as eligible to pay tax as anyone else, however it is less likely that you will earn enough.

There is a basic threshold in the tax system. If your earnings for an entire year fall below that threshold then you will not pay any tax. If your earnings are above that threshold then you will pay tax on the portion of your earnings that falls above the line. You should check whether in your years at university you actually earned over the threshold or not.

If you didn’t earn over the threshold and yet your tax documentation includes details of the tax you paid during those years then you have been taxed incorrectly and you are entitled to a tax rebate. It is possible to secure a tax rebate by speaking to an agency that deals with refunds.

Do not stop thinking about tax once you are taking your pension

Jennifer — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:00:30 +0000

When you retire you may imagine that all your issues related to tax become much simpler. In many cases this is true, but you should not think that your tax payments no longer need to be looked at. It is entirely possible for people to pay too much tax through their pensions and this is another situation that renders people entitled to tax rebates.

One of the most common causes for tax overpayments made through pensions is the use of the wrong information by pension providers or the use of the wrong tax code. Sometimes problems arise from having more than one pension or because of figures related to different dates and how conditions have changed over time.

The point is that your tax situation is not immediately solved just because you are retired. You are not in a position whereby you can simply ignore it and hope everything works out correctly, because there is every chance that you will lose money by doing this at a time when you want your finances to be in order. Tax experts can help you claim back any tax overpaid through your pension.