What is the Tax Refund Calculator?

How to use the Tax Refund Calculator:

To calculate the amount of tax due within a specific tax year please fill in the fields provided (the "Standard" fields should be completed, and extra, optional fields may be completed if you have those figures available).

Once you have filled in all fields which apply then click either on the "Show Results" button or the "Show Calculation Details" button. The effect of these buttons is as follows.

"Show Results": This button will calculate your tax amount and will then take you to a results page which will tell you whether or not you may be eligable for a tax rebate.

"Show Calculation Details": This button will calculate your tax amount and will then take you to a detailed summary page which contains a breakdown of your tax details, including any potential tax rebates if appropriate.

Standard fields:

Tax Year: To ensure that your tax calculation is accurate please choose the correct tax year from the list presented in this field. A tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April of the following year. So, for example, the tax year 2009/2010 starts on 6 April 2009 & ends on 5 April 2010.

Total earnings before tax taken off: Please enter your total pre-tax earnings for your selected tax year in this field. i.e. your total earnings before tax is deducted.

Total tax paid on earnings: Please enter the amount of tax paid during your selected tax year. This information can commonly be found on documents such as forms p45 and p60 or your pay slip or other invoices.

Optional fields:

Total interest on savings paid to you by UK banks or building societies, after tax (often known as net interest): If you know the amount of interest accrued in UK bank & building society accounts during your selected tax year then please enter the amount here. This amount should be after tax has been taken into account.

Total tax deducted from interest on your savings by UK banks and building societies: If you know how much tax was charged against interest accrued during the chosen tax year then please enter the amount here.

NOTE: The sum of these two fields should add up to the total amount of interest accrued during the chosen tax year. e.g. If you earned 100 in total interest but paid 20 in tax then you would have to enter 80 and 20 respectively in the two fields above.

UK interest that has not been taxed: If you have earned any interest in the UK which has not been taxed for any reason then please enter this amount here.

Gift Aid donations during year: If you have maid any Gift Aid donations during the chosen tax year then please enter the total amount donated here.

Receiving Blind Person's Allowance: If you recieved a Blind Person's Allowance during the tax year chosen then please select "Yes" here. This may add an extra amount of tax-free allowance depending on the tax year chosen.

Any tax is based on your income for the tax year. A tax year runs from 6th April to the following 5th April. You can use this checker to work out your tax as far back as the tax year 2003/2004 (6th April 2003 to 5th April 2004).

• Here is an example covering two tax years:
• you start work on 4th March 2004
• you work 20 hours a week for 7 months (29 weeks)
• you earn a total of £3,045 (£105 a week)
• your job falls into 2 tax years: 4 weeks in 2003/2004 and 25 weeks in 2004/2005
• your employer gave you a form P60 showing pay of £420 and tax of £92.40 for the tax year 2003/2004
• when you left he gave you a form P45 showing pay of £2,625 and tax of £40.63 for the tax year 2004/2005

Assuming you had no other jobs between 6th April 2003 and 5th April 2004, you will need to use the tax checker twice, once for 2003/2004 and once for 2004/2005.

The total amount you earned from all the jobs you had in the tax year before any tax was taken off.

The total amount of tax you paid on your earnings from every job you had in the tax year. You should find this information on your form P60 End of Year Certificate or your form P45 Details of employee leaving work.

The total amount of interest paid to you by your bank or building society (after tax has been taken off). Do not include interest from other forms of savings, for example, ISAs or National Savings Ordinary Account up to the first £70.

The total amount of any untaxed bank or building society interest you have received in the tax year. You will need to enter an amount here if you have filled in a form R85 and received interest without tax being taken off.

The total amount of any untaxed bank or building society interest you have received in the tax year. You will need to enter an amount here if you have filled in a form R85 and received interest without tax being taken off.

• When you give money to a charity or to a registered Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) under Gift Aid, the charity or CASC can reclaim the tax that you've paid on that money. So you must have paid at least the same amount of tax that the charity or CASC is going to reclaim.
• A lot of local sports clubs covering a large variety of different sports will be able to register, or may already have registered, as CASCs. Once a club has registered it can claim back the tax on your Gift Aid donations. You will need to check with the club receiving your donation to ensure that the payment will qualify as Gift Aid. Bear in mind that to qualify as a Gift Aid payment your donation must be an outright gift to the club – it does not apply to any other payments such as your membership subscription.
• The amount you pay is looked at as if it has already had tax taken off at 20% from April 2008 & 22% in earlier years. The charity or CASC can reclaim this amount of tax. To work out what the tax is on your gift you need to multiply it by 20 and divide by 80. So, for the 2008-09 tax year onwards, you will have paid 80% of the total gift and 20% is reclaimed from us by the charity or CASC. Looking at it another way for each £1 you donate, the charity or CASC can claim back 25p. Have a look at example 1 below.
• You can also work out the maximum you can pay into Gift Aid if you take the tax you pay on your income and multiply this by 80 and divide it by 20. Another easy way is by saying that for every £1 of tax you pay, you can pay £5.00 to a charity or CASC. You can see this worked out in example 2 below.

Example 1

Jane has to pay £50 in tax on the earnings from her job.
That same tax year Jane donated £80 to her local amateur cycling club under Gift Aid. The club is registered with us as a CASC.
To work out the tax the cycling club can reclaim on the gift we multiply the £80 Gift Aid payment that Jane pays by 20 and then divide it by 80.
£80 x 20/80 = £20. So £20 of the £50 Jane paid in tax was claimed by the cycling club.
This is the same as saying that for each £1 Jane gave to the club the club could reclaim 25p tax so 80 x 25p = £20.
If Jane had not earned enough money to pay any tax but she had donated £80 to a charity or CASC, it could not have been made under Gift Aid. Have a look at the next example to see the maximum Jane can pay under Gift Aid. So overall:
Amount paid by Jane £80 (80% of gift)
Tax that has been paid to Cycling club (20/80 x100) £20 (20% of gift)
Total donation under Gift Aid £100 (100% of gift)

Example 2

Jane has paid £50 in tax so the maximum amount of tax on any Gift Aid payment she makes must not be more than £50. She can work out the largest payment she can make by multiplying the tax she has paid in her job by 80 and dividing by 20.
£50 x 80/20 = £200.
Alternatively we can say that for each £1 tax Jane paid she could pay £4.00 to a charity or CASC – in this case £50 x £4.00 = £200.
Having paid £50 in tax Jane could not have made Gift Aid donations totalling more than £200.

For more information on Gift Aid payments to charities:
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/ir65.htm

For more information on Community Amateur Sport Club donations:
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/casc/casc_guidance.htm#320

You can claim Blind Person's Allowance, as well as your personal allowance, if:

• you are registered blind with a local authority in England or Wales; or
• you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and your vision is impaired to the extent that you are unable to perform any work for which eyesight is essential