Personal tax summaries

HMRC have started to distribute personal tax summaries that set out how much tax you have paid and how the revenue collected is spent by government. According to a recent press release:

1.Personal tax summaries show you how your tax is calculated and what it is spent on

Personal tax summaries show you how much Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) you paid over the financial year 2013-2014, and how this is calculated. The back of the summaries show you how your tax contributed to public spending, for example, how much of the tax you paid went on health, defence, overseas aid and more.

2.Overall, 24 million people will receive a personal tax summary

This is the first year that the government is sending out personal tax summaries, and from now on, they will be sent out once each year.

3. You don’t have to do anything with them

The personal tax summary is for reference only – you don’t have to do anything with it. Apparently, the government is sending them out to improve the transparency of the personal tax system, so that you know how much tax you pay, how it is calculated, and how the government spends it.

4. It’s all part of a wider aim of the government to make the tax system fair and simpler

In future, HMRC will provide everyone with a digital account which will include their tax summary.

5.Not everybody will get theirs on the same day

Personal tax summaries will be sent in batches over several weeks. The first tax summaries were delivered on 3 November, and most will have been sent by mid-December.

If you prepare a tax return, then your summary will not yet be available unless your 2013-14 return has been filed.