How to get your PAYE checked?

Easiest and cheapest is just to do a tax return. If you do it online it will even calculate the tax for you.

Assuming (almost) all her income is PAYE you just copy the numbers from her P60 into the relevant boxes on the employers page, fill in any other required boxes with N/A, 0 etc as appropriate and the look to see how much tax it says you owe or are due. Obviously you need to get the bank interest numbers etc correct before you submit the return. Not sure if you can fill it in unless you've already requested/been told to do a tax return.

If it's all just PAYE then it's easy to work out yourself as well except that I cannot remember what limits the different tax bands take effect. GIYF.

Tim.

I can't see how this can be the easiest.

You can't just decide to "do a tax return" you have to apply to do one.

If you're going to have to contact the revenue to get to do this return, surely it's easier just to ask them the actual question instead.

tim

What do you mean "get her PAYE checked out"? Do you mean that her employer is calculating the PAYE tax correctly, or that her tax code is correct? For the former you can post details here and someone will do it free, but it's unlikely to be wrong. For the latter you need to refer the PAYE coding notice you should have been sent, to see how the code is made up. Or phone your tax office, they are usually helpful.

Usually they take a percentage. Most are a rip-off, and also with self-assessment working on a pay now check later basis, you could make a claim, get it, pay the percentage fee, then find a few months later HMRC get round to checking your tax return and find you're not entitled after all and demand a repayment!

As others have told you, HMRC will do this for free. If the only income is from the employment, then the K code is likely to be from Benefits in Kind that are related to the employment. However, this could be from a variety of reasons all of which would be speculation at this point. Did she get a P60? Did she get a copy of the P11D. Does she have any other income?

When you are happy the code is correct, there is a PAYE and NIC calculator at

and you can check a payslip there. Also, there are people here who will check this for you for free, so dont waste you money.

Simon

IMHO, it's especially important to check the whole thing in a K-code case. It implies other income / benefits / earlier-year adjustments, which may well be a mere HMRC estimate. Further, the cap on K-code tax deductions can result in insufficient tax being deducted (which would never do....)

She may not have a UTR and then she couldn't do a tax return online.

The calculator only applies to the current year.

Phone HMRC is the best advice.

She only has one income, that's from her employer. Her wage slip is not the easiest in the world to decipher. Basically, she gets a basic wage, then gets an extra 10% on top (called a value account), to pay for things such as company car. She only works 24 hours a week and the "value account" is pro-rated. From her "value account" she pays the lease for her company car, also pays for private medical. Also her pension scheme is non-contributory (from herself), it's only company contributions. Given as she only works 24 hours a week, the value account only covers approx half of her benefits, the remaining comes from her salary.

I realise the company car and private medical insurance are taxable benefits, but given she pays appox half the cost of these from her own salary, shouldn't the taxable benefit be pro-rated?

So it seems the K-code is a consequence only of her co.car and medical insurance. If she is also paying something towards both of these, her contribution will reduce the tax on the benefit, so I'm quite surprised she still ends up with a K-code.

It's certainly sensible to get it checked and (as others have said) you should find HMRC themselves quite helpful.

Alternatively, try to find recommendations for a local, small (maybe one-man band?) accountant. At this time of the year, they may be willing to give you a good deal. But bear in mind that if you've got several years to check, the fee is likely to reflect that. And she'll need to produce quite a few figures for each year - her contributions to car and insurance, original car(s) list price, P11D, P60, etc.

I have a sneaky feeling there wont be a P11D. I think the employer may be trying to payroll the benefits. Can the OP give any details. I dont mean name or refernce numbers, but certainly whether there is a P11D return. What type of car is it? What is the monthly pay and how much is the value account?

Simon

Yes. Is there any suggestion that this isn't being done?

tim

The taxable benefit for her company car was something like 5500. Can't recall the exact figure and don't have her P11D to hand. The vehicle is a VW Golf GTI 5 door, 56 plate (only extra being the 6 cd autochanger).

There is a P11D. Is this the document which details taxable benefits and details their value? Not sure about the monthly pay / value account, will dig out the info when i get home. Car is a VW Golf GTI 5 door, 56 plate (only extra being a 6 cd autochanger).

I'm not entirely sure how this works, but I would have thought that if the employee is contributing to the cost of the car then it is up to them to tell the revenue this. BICBW

tim

The employer should record the employee contributions on the P11D. Its in his interest to do so as this reduces the class 1A NI due. It should be sown in the car benefit calculations.

Is there any fuel benefit?

Thats not enough detail but assume this is the 1.4 basic model with List price circa £17500 with fuel, the benefit would be:

Car benefit charge (2007/2008) £3,500.00

Car fuel benefit charge (2007/2008) £2,880.00

With this years allowances of £6035 this wold not result in a K code so there must be something else.

Simon

No fuel benefit. Does it matter that my contributions are on a monthly basis, not a lump sum contribution to the car? As I said earlier, her "value account" which is meant for her car etc, does not cover for the cost of her car and private medical, so approx half the cost of these are being funded by her salary, not her value account.

VW Gold GTI. 2 Litre, turbo. CO2 output approx 192g. Total price approx

21k (inc 6 cd). Not sure exact figures. No fuel

The calculator at

has this as follows:-

Car benefit charge (2007/2008) £5,250.00

so for this value account. How does this work. Is this like a budget that she can use for benefits. For instance, she has salary plus £6000 in benefits. In this case, after the car, there would be £750 left. If the Private medical costs exceed this, then she has to start making payments from net pay or gross pay.

Or is this completely wrong?

Just say for example, salary is 28000. Value account is 10% of salary, so

2,800. From the 2,800, she has to buy her benefits. In my wife's case, the company car and private medical insurance. Car costs 385 per month, private medical costs about 90 per month. This equates to 475 per month, 5,700 per year. So, 2,900 of her salary is used to pay for these benefits. So, she is paying tax on the full amount of her benefits, when over half of the cost of these so called benefits she is paying for from her own salary.