I’ve never had to worry about tax before, or rather I’ve never bothered worrying about tax. Either I was working full time for one employer and it was all dealt with by head office or, from 1995-98, I was a student and paying no tax at all. Late last year it was pointed out to me that I would probably be able to claim back a substantial amount this year and so, today, I did.
When I was on the farm last summer I was earning no cash at all, trading my labour for food and accommodation for three months. In fact I lived on £500 for that entire period, most of which went on storage, travel and website hosting. This is probably why I’m now able to budget for the first time in my life. When I quit the farm I started temping and have done so ever since but never for more than a few weeks at a time and for various agencies. The end result is that I earned £5408 in the last financial year of which £947 vanished in income tax. Because I worked for six different companies in that time, some for only a few weeks, my tax codes were all over the place even before taking my three month gap into account.
Today my P60 tax summary came through from the agency so I took it and my pile of P45s to the Birmingham tax office After waiting about 20 minutes to be seen I explained my situation. The Ps were photocopied to be sent to Wales (where my records are held apparently) and I was told I should get a cheque soon. How soon is “soon” in tax terms? Oh, about 3-4 weeks – there’s a delay due to the budget but it shouldn’t take too long. Can I expect anything? Ooh yes.
Painless and lovely. I must reverse-engineer the government more often.
I submitted a comment yesterday and it never showed. Today’s will be nowhere near as succinct. My thought was that the Inland Revenue should send you a check plus interest. They probably won’t. But if you owed them the same amount you would be expected to cough up interest at some outrageous rate. Ask them for the interest, I’d be interested to learn of their reply.
Maybe this time. . . .
The whole tax thing is new to me. Mum had to explain to me four or five times the logic behind my being able to claim it back before it clicked, so the idea that the owe me interest is even more out there. I’ll see what comes through before figuring if it’s worth pursuing. For example, if I get the full grand back interest at 3% will get me £30, which is kinda worth it but if it’s as low as a tenner then I probably won’t bother.
Been having a look at the Inland Revenue tax code decoding page and while I’ve probably got it wrong it looks like I should only be taxed on £663, meaning I may well get a rebate of £881. Which will be nice! Probably won’t though…
Is it bad that I’ve never even tried to understand this stuff?
Is it bad? Depends on how altruistic you want to be. Taxes seem to me to be one of life’s most unfair experiences. The very rich, those who really should be paying some taxes, often hide behind corporations, trusts and other tax avoidance vehicles, paying expensive tax accountants rather than the treasury. Those earning salaries and wages basically can’t do this, certainly not to the point where no tax is paid at all (and I do know of such cases with very wealthy people).
My take on taxes is that they should be paid but the government and politicians should be made to remember that tax revenue is not their money, it’s our money which we are entrusting with them to distribute for the benefit of society as a whole. If they could create some transparency on this it would help me a great deal every April!
My experience with the Inland Revenue has been very positive; they give me back all my tax every year within 6 weeks of me finishing work. Can’t fault them for efficiency or politeness when I phone up to find out what’s happening. Best of luck.
The tax return came through today for the full amount. They didn’t pay me any interest but the documentation says they only do this is the return comes after January 2005. Which seems fair enough.
question???
At the age of 28, i’ve never have done taxes.
Always had jobs on and off accept for the last year of course. Toatally, been straight workin,two diffrent jobs. So how would I go about doing taxes for the first time this yea??
Tax Rebates dont hurt so long as the governement is willing to part with the cash! I have £600 tied up in back taxes, so i agreed to use a company to sort them out as its far less painles….or so i thought! After the first company lost my P45′s, the second used Statements of Earningas which the lovely folk at the Inland Revenue would not accept. Now i’ve been phoning previous employers to get duplicate P45′s, but some are not willing to create these because they are in previous tax years! If they still don’t accept a combination of some P45′s and some statement of earnings, then i am up the inland revenue creek without a tax ascessor!