Tax refunds

Why might I have paid too much tax?

As a student it is likely that as well as being busy with your studies you are juggling working part-time, whether that is in one or more jobs or maybe having different jobs during the vacations.

It is often the case that students who are working end up with complicated tax affairs. This can be brought about by changing jobs regularly and possibly working in more than one part-time job at a time. Sometimes this results in your tax affairs not being as up to date with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as they should be, which can then lead to employers using incorrect Pay As You Earn codes on your payslips and as a consequence you could end up paying too much tax.

You may have also been paying tax on other income such as interest on savings before the 2016/17 tax year, where tax has been deducted automatically by banks and building societies if you had not used form R85 to enable them to pay the interest without taking the tax off. If you think you may have overpaid your tax then you will want to reclaim the overpayment as soon as possible, and by the cheapest method possible – by contacting HMRC yourself. Make sure they have your correct address or the refund might be sent to the wrong place.

In the subsequent pages, we cover:

• How do I work out if I have paid too much tax?
• How do I claim back tax?

Our factsheet on ‘Obtaining a tax refund’ provides a summary of how you can work out if you are due a refund and how you can reclaim any overpaid tax.