National Insurance and Tax
You will need to pay National Insurance contributions and tax whilst you are working in the UK. Although your employer will work out how much you have to pay, it's worth knowing a little bit about how it works.
National Insurance Number
All students must have a National Insurance Number. This is a unique identification of you for your employer and the tax office. It looks like this:
AB 12 34 56 C
You should apply for a National Insurance number as soon as you arrive in the UK and begin work.You will apply through a Job Centre Plus office. The office nearest to the University is:
Eagle House
St Stephens Street
Bristol
BS1 1EN
Tel: 0845 600 0643
Telephone first to make an appointment for an interview. You will be assigned a time and date for an interview and receive confirmation via the post. You will also receive a list of the documents you will need to take with you to your interview. After your interview, please make sure you ask for form CA5404, which confirms you have applied for a National Insurance number.
Waiting time for an appointment with the Job Centre Plus is currently about four weeks. The National Insurance number should be issued about 5-7 weeks after your interview, but you can work in the meantime. You can work and be paid without a National Insurance Number.
For students who are employed by the University of Bath, you are able to get a National Insurance number through the post. This will save you valuable time as you will not need to go to Bristol. Please come to the JobLink office and we can give you the forms.
Tax
If you earn over your personal allowance each year, you will be eligible to pay tax.
You must complete a tax form when you start work in the UK. This form is used to deduct the right amount of tax from your pay.
If you feel you have paid too much tax and you want to claim it back, you need to call the tax office on 0845 3021443
For more information on tax click here
HMRC's Facebook application http://apps.facebook.com/uktaxrefundcalc
is for students to estimate whether they're eligible for a tax refund, and, if
so, how much.
If you are an International Student and wish to claim tax back once you have left the UK, please click here