Tax needn't be taxing

If you have to work out the total PAYE income tax and Employee's National Insurance deducted from your wages or salary, you can:

1. Waste about ten minutes with a set of tables, splitting your income into the different bands, calculating the tax due at 0%, 10%, 22% or 40% (from 5 April 2008, 0%, 20% and 40%) and the NI due at 0% and 11% and 1%, totting these all up, dividing by twelve or fifty-two as appropriate and knocking it off the figure you first thought of;

2. Use a handy online calculator, like this one; or

3. If you can't be bothered with method 1 and you aren't online, all you have to do* for a basic rate employee is knock off £5,444 and times the excess by 31%, or for a higher rate employee, knock off £14,562 and times by 41%. Then there's the stupid intermediate band between £40,040 and £41,435, where you have to add on £11,030 and times by 21%.

Which sort of begs the question, if you are on a low salary of £15,000, would you rather knock off £5,444 and pay 31% x £9,556 = £2,962, or knock off £14,562 and pay 41% on £438 = £180?

* Assuming a normal PAYE code of 544L for 2008-09