TRL Helpdesk: Tax working 2 jobs

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I've just started a second job yesterday and I don't really know how the tax works. I've done some reading but I don't have a clue about these things. 

It says you don't need to pay tax on earnings under £12,500 but it seems this amount is only taken into account on one income and I will be taxed at a normal 20% rate on the second income even though both the incomes will probably be under the amount specified above. 

I say probably because the two amounts are not set in stone salaries and will be slightly different each month. It does say you can request both salaries to be taken into account if they are stable amounts but I shouldn't if they aren't. 

If I don't get them both taken into account I will be taxed on the second (as I've said) and I can request a refund at the end of the tax year. It also suggests HMRC might get in touch with me automatically at the end of the year informing me I am entitled to a refund. 

I tried ringing them to ask for advice and was on hold for ages so gave up. I've registered an account online to access my tax records but it says until I get my first pay from my second job that won't appear on there of course so I hit a bit of a wall there as well. 

As I say, I don't have a clue about these things, would really appreciate if anyone here who has worked two jobs could tell me of their experience. 

[JonM]

My wife, had (for a while), 3 jobs, each of which was very part-time, and also quite variable in pay. (One of them was exam invigilating, which paid only in April, May, June, for example). The total income for all of them was below the income tax threshold. Sounds like a similar situation to yours.

She was able to phone up HMRC and essentially allocate part of her allowance to each one, so that she didn't have to go through the rigmarole of paying tax and then claiming it back. (I.e she said, £7000 on this one, £4000 on this one, £1000 on this one kind of thing). My experience (and hers) is that they are super helpful and knowledgeable when you phone up. I imagine now is by a long way their busiest time of the year because self-assessment tax forms (millions of people) have to be done and any tax due to be paid by Jan 31st. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

30 minutes ago, JonM said:

My wife, had (for a while), 3 jobs, each of which was very part-time, and also quite variable in pay. (One of them was exam invigilating, which paid only in April, May, June, for example). The total income for all of them was below the income tax threshold. Sounds like a similar situation to yours.

She was able to phone up HMRC and essentially allocate part of her allowance to each one, so that she didn't have to go through the rigmarole of paying tax and then claiming it back. (I.e she said, £7000 on this one, £4000 on this one, £1000 on this one kind of thing). My experience (and hers) is that they are super helpful and knowledgeable when you phone up. I imagine now is by a long way their busiest time of the year because self-assessment tax forms (millions of people) have to be done and any tax due to be paid by Jan 31st. 

Thanks so much for this reply mate, this really helps me and has calmed my stress a bit. I hadn't thought of it being the end of the tax year coming up and them being really busy. I gave up on hold after about 15 minutes, probably should have just waited. 

The job incomes will be just under £7,000 and £5000 respectively so I could easily set thresholds at those amounts and maybe end up just paying a tiny bit of tax if it goes over one month.

That's really put my mind at rest, I'll even be quite happy to pay a bit too much for a couple of months until the busy period is over before ringing them and getting it sorted.

Thanks so much again for that, when you're in Hull let me know and I'll buy you a pint.

[JonM]

You may well end up still paying national insurance, of course, because that's calculated on a weekly basis, not annually. Any week where you earn over £184 you will get some deduction for NI.

Seeing as I'm in the 45% tax bracket, I reckon it should be me paying for the drinks  

[The Hallucinating Goose]

3 minutes ago, JonM said:

You may well end up still paying national insurance, of course, because that's calculated on a weekly basis, not annually. Any week where you earn over £184 you will get some deduction for NI.

Seeing as I'm in the 45% tax bracket, I reckon it should be me paying for the drinks  

I'm not bothered about national insurance payments cos I've paid them in the past anyway and they are never too much. The new job I've got is gonna be my long term one eventually, basically just carrying on doing the first job until more hours come up at the new one then jacking the first one in. Once that happens I won't have this confusion with the tax anyway. Might even only be a month or two until I can do that anyway. 

Not a problem with me, the drinks are on you!

[tim2]

To add to the above, HMRC are pretty helpful when you call. It may take time to get through, though, especially at this time of year.

When I was reffing with the RFL (only in the RLC), my payments from them had a special tax code as they knew it was an "add-on" job. It all came out in the wash at the end of year tax calc and was my main code was adjusted for the following year if I owed anything.