Students: I have two part-time jobs, am I entitled to personal allowances on both?

For income tax it doesn't matter how many jobs you have, you are only entitled to one Personal Allowance in any tax year (£6,035 in 2008/2009). For National Insurance you can earn up to this amount in each job without having to pay contributions.

If you start a second job - without giving up your first job - you won't have a form P45 (PDF 65K). Instead, your new employer will give you a form P46 (PDF 59K). You should use this form to tell your new employer you are working somewhere else as well. You don't have to tell them where you are working or how much you are earning.

Your new employer will then deduct tax at basic rate (20 per cent) from your wages.

However, if you don't pay tax on your first job it probably means that:

• you are not using all of your Personal Allowance
• you are paying too much tax

You can ask HM Revenue & Customs to split your Personal Allowance between your jobs.

Alternatively if your income from your second job is less than your Personal Allowance (£6,035 in 2008/2009) you can again choose to have your allowance split between your jobs. You should contact HM Revenue & Customs to arrange this.

For example, Mr James is entitled to a Personal Allowance of £6,035 for the tax year 2008/2009. He earns:

• £20,000 from Company A
• £1,615 from Company B

Mr James can ask his tax office to split his Personal Allowance as follows:

Allowances set against

Company	Pay	Allowances
Company A	£20,000	£4,420
Company B	£ 1,615	£1,615
Total	£21,615	£6,035 (Personal Allowance entitlement)

So, he receives his income from Company B without tax being deducted. This does not alter Mr James's overall tax bill, but the allowances are distributed differently.