Warning over wrong tax codes
Thousands of employees could unwittingly be paying too much tax each month due to incorrect tax codes, Grant Thornton has warned.
Grant Thornton told employees to double check their tax codes, emphasising that taxpayers should not assume the Inland Revenue will have allocated the correct tax code.
Mike Warburton, senior tax partner, said: ‘Many people tend to believe that the Revenue will have allocated the correct tax code to them, and that the correct tax will be deducted. However, the intracacies of the tax system may mean that it is worth double checking the calculations.’
The warning comes on the back of growing complexities in the UK taxation system and the general public’s lack of knowledge about taxation. The Revenue paid out £1.8bn in the tax year 1998/1999 in tax rebates, according to a recent report in a national newspaper.
‘Now that we are truly underway into the self-assessment regime, it is vital that employees and pensioners alike understand how their tax is worked out. …, the system is so complex that it is necessary to check an recheck the figures and estimates,’ added Warburton.