Whose money is it anyway?

Do you ever send your notice of coding to your accountant to check? This Notice is the form issued by the taxman to tell employers how much PAYE tax to take off when they pay wages and salaries. The italicised note below gives a little more background for those readers who want it.

Depending on your circumstances the coding might be right or wrong OR it might not be possible to say one way or another. This is because if your tax affairs are even just a little complicated it's not possible to be certain exactly what tax code would be the right one.

If you ask your accountant to check the notice you need to know if he/she is going to charge extra for this. What you want to avoid is paying extra fees for your accountant to get the coding changed unless the change has a positive cashflow impact.

Whether or not the coding notice is changed what is your reaction at the end of the year if your accountant tells you that you're going to get a tax refund? Jubilation? Relief? Ecstasy?

Before you credit your accountant with being an aboslute whizz, find out WHY you've got a refund. If it's because your coding notice was wrong the refund may not be such great news.
The refund is just paying back to you the extra tax you paid each month through PAYE. Did anyone give you the option of getting a new coding notice and paying less tax each month?
The tax refund is YOUR money being paid back to you.

All employees (including company directors) get Notices of Coding and the taxman admits that a fair percentage are wrong each year. This means that either too much or too little tax is deducted from salaries and then refunded or collected when the tax return is filed. In some cases an underpayment can be collected by making an adjustment to the next year's Notice of coding.