Self assessment previous years underpayment collection

[ed8890]

Hi,
have juse completed my self assessment, but have a quesiton regarding how underpaid tax from previous years is collected in your tax code.
For example I owed £122.52 from a previous tax year that is being collected through my PAYE code for 2010-2011. However this is done by applying -£612 to my tax code. Clearly at 20% this is correct, but effectively this will be effective at the highest tax rate i pay, so 40%, meaning i repay £245.04.
If i had chosen not to have it collected through my code and paid it via a cheque, then the £122.52 would have been the amount.

am i missing something, or do i have recourse to contact the tax office?

thanks for an input

[robbob]

Hello Ed

It looks like the tax office have not realised that you will be a higher rate taxpayer this year.
If you ring them up and tell them you are, then they should alter the tax coding for you.

[mullet]

Or you can leave things as they are, and it will all get mopped up when you submit this year's SA return.

[JRG]

When you completed your assessment for 2009-10, you must have elected to have any underpaid tax collected through your 2010-11 PAYE code.
It's not too late to amend your assessment, so that you pay what you owe for previous years (you have until 31st January 2011), which should revert your Tax Code to normal.

[robbob]

When you completed your assessment for 2009-10, you must have elected to have any underpaid tax collected through your 2010-11 PAYE code

Hello JRG

2009/10 tax if coded out will be collected via a 2011/12 tax coding adjustment and not a current year one.

The amount being collected in the current tax year will likely be for 2008/09 so amending a return to change the payment type will not really be an option for the OP.