42 per cent of employees in London have paid too much tax

New research has found that 42% of employees in London have paid too much tax as a result of being on the wrong tax code or through errors with deductions. Eight per cent of London’s employees claim to be affected in the past year alone.

Almost a quarter (23%) of London employees have four or more regular deductions from their gross pay, such as travel loans, childcare vouchers, student loans, gym memberships and medical insurance. With all of these impacting the tax code a worker should be on at any point in the year, it is not surprising that both employees and business owners can struggle to get this right every time.

Shaun Shirazian, Head of Product at Intuit QuickBooks UK, who conducted the research said, “Many of us can feel a bit lost when checking our payslips and feel unsure about the multiple factors that contribute to our adjusted pay. Taxes are complex and the research shows that significant overpaying of tax is caused by payroll issues, such as being on the wrong tax code, or errors with deductions such as childcare vouchers.”

The research further found that overpaying tax due to payroll issues was just as prevalent across employees of companies of all sizes, but employees of smaller businesses are far less likely to even check their payslip for mistakes.

Shirazian added, “Small businesses in particular have many different areas of a business to manage, often with limited support in terms of man-power.

“They want to get pay right for their employees but, as this research shows there are sometimes a multitude of challenges in ensuring this is watertight.  We want to be able to give these business owners the tools and support they need to help their employees get paid properly and accurately.”