Students: Working in term time and the holidays

There are special rules about tax for students who only work in the Easter, summer, and Christmas holidays. These special rules do not apply if you also work at other times. If you work at other times, the special rules will not apply to any of your earnings, from holiday work or other work.

So if you are a student, and you do paid work in term time, the special rules will not apply to you. The normal rules for tax and National Insurance will apply to all your earnings, (term time and holidays) in the same way that they do for other people who are not students.

Working as an employee in term time and the holidays

Income Tax
If you had a previous job, your employer gave you a form P45 (PDF 65K) when you left. Give this to your new employer.

If you have no form P45, or you left your last job in an earlier tax year, you will need to complete a form P46 (PDF 59K) instead. Your new employer will provide this form.

Your new employer will use the form P45 or P46 to find out your tax code from the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Using the tax code, your employer can work out correctly any tax you must pay.

If you have more than one job at the same time, you should contact the HMRC to get a different tax code for your second job.

You will only have to pay tax if you earn more than £6,035 in the tax year (6 April 2008 to 5 April 2009). This works out as £116 a week, or £503 a month. The tax code and the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system spread any tax due across the year as evenly as possible. In this way, if you work throughout the year, you will pay the right amount of tax. If you give up work part way through the year, a refund may be due.

National Insurance Contributions (NICs)

You pay the same NICs whether or not you are a student. Your employer will deduct NICs from your pay if they are due.

NICs will be due for any week in which your gross pay (before deductions of tax and so on) is between £105.01 to £770 per week (£453.01 and £3,337 a month).

NICs are due on your pay for the week or month, so you will not get a refund if you stop working part way through the tax year.

Working as a self-employed person while you are a student

There are no special tax rules for you if you are a student and also self-employed. You will be treated in the same way as other self-employed people.

You must tell the HMRC if you start working as a self-employed person. Do this by ringing the helpline for the newly self-employed on 08459 15 45 15. You must do this within three months of starting to be self-employed to avoid paying a penalty.

Later, we will send you a tax return, on which you will declare your earnings from being self-employed.