Income tax - full-time job in addition to state pension

[Petemate]

Just about to write to Inland Revenue. I am of retirement age, drawing state pension and two small private ones (£330 & £34 monthly respectively) I went back into full-time work in Oct 2006 for a large Aviation company. My employment with the company ceased via redundancy on 15 Dec 2009; I then started with the company which took over one of the large contracts on 16 Dec. The HR lady in the present company contacted me after a week and asked if I realised I was on base rate tax - I told her I didn't know, but on checking the previous company had been deducting it for all of the three years. She has just advised, following my query today, that I am still on base rate - £538 tax on gross £1600 was painful... She has advised me to contact the tax peeps. She confirmed that I was drawing pension, but still thought it was a bit high. I have been advised to try and sort this before 01 April. Is it worth me writing? Or is this high tax normal considering the pension payments I am getting? I don't want to 1) get false hopes and/or 2) waste mine and everyone's time.

[Eric Mc]

Organise the completion of some Self Assessment tax returns for the years in question. It may be a bit onerous but it might be worth the effort.

I deal with a number of pensioner clients and, even though their income levels aren't very high, their affairs can be a bit tricky because of the state pension and additional age related allowances.