Low incomes

The sections below contain tax saving advice for people on low incomes.

Receive interest gross

If your personal allowances are higher than your income and you receive interest from a bank or building society, you may be able to register to have the interest paid gross. This means that the bank or building society would not deduct income tax from your interest before it is paid to you. Your bank or building society will be able to give you form R85 which you will need to complete.

Repayment claim form

If you do not fall within the scope of self-assessment and you feel you may be due a repayment of income tax for the year, you can ask your tax office for a Repayment Claim Form (R40). You should complete this and send it to your tax office. They will calculate your tax position for the year and send you any repayment of tax due to you. There is no time limit for this form to be submitted and claims can generally be made for the previous six tax years.

Multiple employments

If you have more than one job and you earn less than your personal allowance (basic personal allowance for 2007/2008 is £5,225) you should ask your tax office to split the allowance between your employments.