Neil MacGillivray: It pays to be aware of PAYE perils

Tax can be overpaid

clock • 3 min read

Real-time information has improved the speed with which adjusted PAYE tax codes can be applied but, warns Neil MacGillivray, advisers should make sure their clients are aware they may be overtaxed and what to do if this happens

One of my colleagues sent me a link to a Radio 4 Money Box podcast where Paul Lewis claimed hundreds of thousands of people who had used pension freedom to take lump sums had been overtaxed by thousands of pounds. He then went on to say he had new research that suggested the Treasury had a tax windfall of more than a billion pounds in the first two and a half years since the pension freedoms began from overpaid tax that had not been refunded. If so, then based on the fact £14.2bn has been withdrawn under pension freedom over this period, the Treasury would be benefiting from an additi...

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