Never took much notice before but letter from HRMC in Jan said new tax code is k559X from 2367- from April 6th. This month stopped me over 200 quid tax, normally it's 68. Thing is nothing has changed all last year stopping 68 quid off the council pension. Apart from state and council pension only about 2k a year taxable interest, at a loss to understand whey they changed it and the tax is now about 3x higher when income is the same. Do they often make mistakes?

On 1/31/2025 at 9:32 PM, proton said:

Never took much notice before but letter from HRMC in Jan said new tax code is k559X from 2367- from April 6th. This month stopped me over 200 quid tax, normally it's 68. Thing is nothing has changed all last year stopping 68 quid off the council pension. Apart from state and council pension only about 2k a year taxable interest, at a loss to understand whey they changed it and the tax is now about 3x higher when income is the same. Do they often make mistakes?

yes.

Martin Lewis of Money saving Expert had a thing on checking tax codes a while ago. Try looking it up.

 

If you have a Government Gateway account you could be able to go in and find out exactly what they are basing it on and get it changed.. My guess is, if your old enough, the theoretical increase to the state pension - which if frozen is very irritating. There is already a current thread on here about that - -

https://aseannow.com/topic/1349833-getting-uk-hmrc-to-recognise-my-uk-state-pension-as-not-receiving-the-yearly-increases/

 

If not then must be something else they think you are getting.

 

5 minutes ago, topt said:

yes.

Martin Lewis of Money saving Expert had a thing on checking tax codes a while ago. Try looking it up.

 

If you have a Government Gateway account you could be able to go in and find out exactly what they are basing it on and get it changed.. My guess is, if your old enough, the theoretical increase to the state pension - which if frozen is very irritating. There is already a current thread on here about that - -

https://aseannow.com/topic/1349833-getting-uk-hmrc-to-recognise-my-uk-state-pension-as-not-receiving-the-yearly-increases/

 

If not then must be something else they think you are getting.

 

 

Yes I joined the gateway to access all the figures but nobody can understand their reasoning. They don't appear to have an email, unless it's well hidden so I put in a complaint and if that goes nowhere will write. They have a chat function but as usual the auto chat is useless, you can get to chat to a real person, probably in India though.

6 hours ago, proton said:

 

Yes I joined the gateway to access all the figures but nobody can understand their reasoning. They don't appear to have an email, unless it's well hidden so I put in a complaint and if that goes nowhere will write. They have a chat function but as usual the auto chat is useless, you can get to chat to a real person, probably in India though.

I have good experience using the chat to get my tax code corrected on the spot on 2-3 occasions. I was connected to what sounded like a native English speaker each time.

3 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

I have good experience using the chat to get my tax code corrected on the spot on 2-3 occasions. I was connected to what sounded like a native English speaker each time.

 

I might give that a try but it's q lot to explain typing out in a chat box, or did they just look your case up and see straight away they made a mistake? How did you actually speak to them?

19 hours ago, proton said:

 

I might give that a try but it's q lot to explain typing out in a chat box, or did they just look your case up and see straight away they made a mistake? How did you actually speak to them?

I typed the problem (my tax code was wrong because their record of my state pension was greater then the actual value) into the chat box. I then informed them what the value should be (using chat box), they looked at my details and corrected the error. Job done. 

4 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

I typed the problem (my tax code was wrong because their record of my state pension was greater then the actual value) into the chat box. I then informed them what the value should be (using chat box), they looked at my details and corrected the error. Job done. 

 

Mine problem is a bit more complicated but might give that a go if complaint gets nowhere

On 1/31/2025 at 9:32 PM, proton said:

Never took much notice before but letter from HRMC in Jan said new tax code is k559X from 2367- from April 6th. This month stopped me over 200 quid tax, normally it's 68. Thing is nothing has changed all last year stopping 68 quid off the council pension. Apart from state and council pension only about 2k a year taxable interest, at a loss to understand whey they changed it and the tax is now about 3x higher when income is the same. Do they often make mistakes?

 

Some years ago my tax code suddenly changed in just this way - no additional income, no changes at all. It turned out that my main pension provider had changed the scheme name and HMRC weren't aware of the change. In effect, I was being taxed on one income under the OLD name and a distinct, but same amount, income under the NEW name. It was corrected once I pointed this out to them (and, I suppose, they made their own enquiries),

 

Check that something similar hasn't happened here.