Spring Clean your finances for the start of the new tax year

If you are one of the many students who work while studying, now is the perfect time to spring clean your finances - you might be entitled to a tax refund if you earned less than £5225 in the last tax year, 07/08.

If you have worked during the last 12 months, you can check to see if you’ve paid the right amount of tax on HM Revenue and Customs’ new Student Tax Refund Calculator site. The Calculator can be found on Facebook as well. If you think you’re due a refund these websites tell you how to go about claiming.

The new tax year, which started on 6 April 2008, brought a change to the Personal Allowance. This is the amount you can earn tax free. It has increased from £5225 to £6035. This means that you can earn about £116 per week or £502 per month before you start paying tax.

The Personal Allowance was only increased to this amount from the originally intended £5435 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer after the actual start of the tax year, 08/09, because of the fuss about the removal of the 10% tax band. The increase will be backdated to 6 April 2008 in September 2008 so be aware of this if you work over the summer, but not into September, as you may be due a tax refund. See 'Understanding the changes to the Personal Allowance and basic rate tax band in September 2008.' on the HM Revenue and Customs website. This site also tells you what to do if you've completed a P38(S) if you 're a student working only in the holidays.

You can find the answers to your tax-related questions on the HM Revenue and Customs Student Tax Advice site.

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