All help and advice we give is totally ethical and within the law, so there is no chance you will end up on the wrong side of the prison walls!
Tax avoidance, or tax prevention as we prefer to call it, is simply a way of getting your tax situation in order before you work. This means that you may not have to pay any tax whatsoever and therefore will not need to go to the trouble of claiming money back at a later stage. Prevention is certainly better than the cure!
The basic rule is that you will not be liable for tax so long as your annual earnings do not exceed your tax free personal allowance (currently 6,475 for the 2009/10 tax year).
If you earn above the personal allowance limit you will be liable to pay tax. However you need to ensure that you do not overpay, since the tax system spreads your tax payments over a full year. If you start or leave work during a tax year, you may well end up paying more tax over that year than you should.
Therefore, if you work on a casual basis during weekends, evenings or holidays, please use the following guidelines:
Employment during Term
If you begin your casual or part-time work during term time, then you will be taxed in the same way as any full time employee. You will need to give your employer a P45 form, which will have been provided to you by your previous employer, if you had one, when you left.
If you have not worked before and do not have a P45, you can download a P46 form from our Resources page and hand it to your new employer. The information on these forms enables your employer to calculate the correct amount of tax that should be deducted.
