Introduction to Income Tax and NICs Pay As You Earn and income tax
After the end of the tax year, HMRC will calculate the taxpayer’s total liability. Any remaining underpayment will be collected through the Self Assessment process or by issuing a tax code for the following year that has a reduced Personal Allowance. This in itself may result in a K prefix tax code being issued in the following year if the debt is greater than the individual’s Personal Allowance.
Tax codes
Some tax codes can be operated on either the cumulative or non-cumulative basis. These tax codes are:
The emergency tax code
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BR or SBR tax codes
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Prefix D or SD tax codes
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NT
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Prefix K, SK or CK tax codes
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• All tax codes with a suffix letter of L, M, N or T.
Note that the S prefix indicates that an individual is a Scottish rate taxpayer who is subject to the Scottish rates of income tax. Similarly, the C prefix indicates that an individual is a Welsh rate taxpayer who is subject to the Welsh rates of income tax. These prefixes are added to the standard tax code and have no bearing on whether the tax code is operated on the cumulative or non-cumulative basis.
Starting the tax year
At the start of each tax year, any tax codes that had been operated on a non- cumulative basis in the preceding tax year change to a cumulative basis. Therefore, care must be taken when using the tax code from a new starter’s P45 if it is dated in the previous tax year.
HMRC provides a tool to help employers work out a new employee’s tax code at https://www.gov.uk/new-employee-tax-code.
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Tax tables
HMRC provides tax tables to help calculate the pay adjustment and the tax due, but these steps can also be carried out using a calculator.
To calculate how much tax to deduct from (or refund to) an employee in a pay period requires the employee’s tax code, copies of HMRC’s tax tables (if used) and figures for the gross taxable pay to date and tax paid to date from the previous pay period (unless the tax code is to be operated on a non-cumulative basis).
New versions of the tables are generally available to all employers at the start of each tax year. They are available as electronic or ‘soft copies’. It is vital to ensure
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