No tax paid

M

mickmc

Guest
I started working on a building site two months ago, and haven't paid any tax since. Why would that be? I asked somebody in the office about it, but he said that there was a certain grace period before people paid tax, which doesn't sound right. I received a tax credit certificate today in the post, but I can't figure out what, if anything it's telling me..
 
What do your payslips say about deductions? Talk of a grace period sounds fishy. What are your gross earnings?
 
Tax Paid is Zero
I pay PRSI, and a Pension contribution.
My tax credit certificate says that my tax credit (yearly, monthly and weekly) is zero. Does that shed any light on any subjects?
 
mickmc said:
Tax Paid is Zero
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That is odd - unless you have accumulated unused tax credits from the start of the year so that you don't pay tax now?
My tax credit certificate says that my tax credit (yearly, monthly and weekly) is zero.
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That is very odd. No credits at all!?! Have you queried this with Revenue?
 
i'll give them a shout tomorrow, guess they'll sting me for two months oftax...
 
The builder may have been waiting to receive tax cert. I've never heard of zero tax credits before so it's obviously a mistake! The only reason I can think of is if at some time, you were a sole trader and assigned all of your tax credits to this??

Whether or not you'll have to pay tax will depend on your salary. New tax credit cert from Revenue may mean that you don't have to pay tax e.g. if you were unemployed earlier this year etc. Best thing to do is to ring the Revenue tomorrow.
 
he said that there was a certain grace period before people paid tax
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This is a common misconception. You are liable for tax as soon as you start working. What generally happens is that when people start their first job, they have about 6 months tax credits & standard rate cut off point built up, so they don't actually owe any tax. It may seem like a 'grace period' , but it isn't really.

Do you know what your standard rate cut off point is? - if this too is zero, then you certainly should be paying tax.

Did you provide your employers with any prior tax credit certificate? - maybe you should have just been on emergency tax, and they messed it up. Anyway, it'll correct itself once they update your tax credits and standard rate cut off point.
 
If you have zero tax credits, Revenue probably has you still registered as working for a previous employer, and has continued to allocate the credits there.
 
mickmc said:
I received a tax credit certificate today in the post, but I can't figure out what, if anything it's telling me..
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[broken link removed] may help you make a bit more sence of the information (which should be!) contained on the Tax Cert.

If none of the advice above seems to explain the problem, contact Revenue. My tax cert for this year gave me a total Tax Credit of next to nothing and was simply a mistake by Revenue which they corrected straight away (once I got through to them). It may be worth having a look through the link above so you have some idea what you are eligible for.
 
Thanks all, called Revenue today, turns out they still had me registered with a previous employer, so they're transferring the tax credits to my current employer now.
 
Joe1234 said:
The builder would be obliged to deduct emergency tax. He cannot just decide to wait until he gets a notice of tax credits.
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I know Joe, but lots pay cash in hand for the first few weeks also, just in case they don't keep the person on, or it's a small job where they needed extra help and 'contract' the person for a while. Not saying I agree with it! :(
 
Joe1234 rasies the point about the obligation to deduct tax on an 'emergency basis' and this steps up dramatically after a few weeks.

It struck me that you may be regarded as 'self employed' ?
 
Or maybe [broken link removed] in case their tax treatment is different again (to PAYE or self employed)?
 
Having nil tax credits means all your credits are with another company so if someone has nil tax credits with the 2nd company, they should be paying tax at the higher % rate, not, not getting taxed at all. It'll sort itself out when new tax cert gets sent out!! But you'll more than likely owe them money :D
 
mickmc said:
Tax Paid is Zero
I pay PRSI, and a Pension contribution.
My tax credit certificate says that my tax credit (yearly, monthly and weekly) is zero. Does that shed any light on any subjects?
Click to expand...

If the zero tax credit certificate has the builders name as the employer, then you are definately an employee.
 
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