How to get my swift code?

I need to change from the emergency tax code I'm on. How long till I get refund etc?

• I started a new job in mid July, before that it, unfortunately, had been a while since I had been in employment - more than a year. My earnings for this tax year are solely made up from what I've earned in this new job, i.e. I had no income between April 6 (the start of the tax year) and mid July (when I started the job). My tax code is BR - I'm not certain this is emergency tax but whatever it is I'm getting over charged and I'm getting taxed 20% on all my earnings. My first question would be how easy is it to change a tax code and how long does it take. Secondly, and more importantly, how long would it be till I get a refund. A few years ago, I seem to remember a friend getting one in their next pay. I looked on the HMRC website but found it a little confusing, or at least unable to give me specific answers. I was hoping someone might be able to clarify the process/timescale etc for me. I will just add some rough figures regarding earinings. Since I started the job I have earned approx. £5,000 and paid approx. £1,000 in tax. I expect to earn between £6,000 and £9,000 by the end of the tax year in April depending on pay rises and the availability of work. If I go in the middle of that estimate, and therefore predict future earnings this tax year of £7,500 then that would take my total earnings this tax year to approx. £12,500. Assuming the tax free limit is roughly £6,500 then that would mean I would only have to pay tax on the remaining £6,000 of earnings. Considering I've have already paid £1,000 tax on approx. £5,000 of earnings this tax year, which of the following does that mean: a) I don't get a refund but my remaining tax contributions for the rest of the year will be significantly reduced to take account of being over-taxed up to this point. b) I get a partial refund of the £1,000 I've already paid. This refund should roughly put me back in line with what I should have paid had I had the correct code from the start c) My tax code changes but I can't get a refund until the end of the year. The tax I'm am charged is dependent on what I earn that month rather than what I've earned up to that point throughout the whole year. For example, I get paid every four weeks therefore there are 13 pay sectors in a year. If the tax free limit is £6,500 then that would equate to an average of £500 earning being tax-free in each pay sector. Therefore if I earned £1,500 in a pay packet, with £500 tax free, there would be £1000 to pay tax on - at 20% that would be £200 tax for that pay sector. Assuming my earning were £1500 each pay day, would I continue to pay the £200 tax each time and only at the end of the year be able to claim a refund (which would be a proportion of the tax I've paid thus far which hasn't taken account of the tax free limit)? One last thing, when I looked at the HMRC site I found something called 'Student Tax Checker'. I'll just point out, it seems you don't have to be a student to use it - I'm not sure why it has that name. When I put my details into this it said that I had been overtaxed by the full amount of tax that I have paid this year so far. While I have used the 'Student Tax Checker' in the past and it was accurate for a tax refund I collected, this was based on full tax years that had ended. Because we are still in the middle of this tax year and I am still able to earn more/be taxed more, I don't know how accurate the 'Student Tax Checker' is on this occasion. Any help or info on anything I have mentioned here would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

• Answer:

  You need to speak to your company's payroll department and ask them why they are operating a BR code for you. BR is not the emergency code. The emergency code is 647L-W1. BR is usually for someone who already has another job which is using up their free pay allowance. If this job is your only job and you have no other earnings in the current tax year (i.e. since April 6th) then you should complete a form P46 and tick the box to say that this is your only job and you have no other earnings. This will then allow your employer to put you on a normal 647L code. you will get the refund of overpaid tax through your employer on the next pay day.