Before you start

A National Insurance number
PAYE registration through each employer you have
A Government Gateway account, if you need Self Assessment
Records of foreign income, overseas accounts and any share options

Step-by-step

1
Check the tax code on your first payslip from every employer
PAYE deducts at source, so a wrong code means wrong deductions for months. If you hold both a university and a college appointment, two payrolls are operating and only one can carry your personal allowance — the second should be on a BR or D0 code. Getting this wrong is the single most common Oxford tax error.
Via employerWho: YouFirst payslip from each
2
Learn the three English bands
A personal allowance, then Basic, Higher from £50,270 and Additional from £125,140. Fewer bands than Scotland's six and a materially later Higher rate threshold. The thresholds have been frozen for several years, pulling more people into higher bands each year as wages rise.
OnlineWho: You
3
Know about the 60% band above £100,000
The personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000, producing an effective marginal rate near 60% between £100,000 and £125,140. Pension salary sacrifice is the standard response. Senior clinical academic and industry salaries here land in this band often enough to make modelling it worthwhile before you accept.
OnlineWho: You
4
Work out whether your funding is taxable
Stipends, fellowships, studentships and grants are treated differently from salary and the distinction is not always obvious from the payment schedule. Some sit outside income tax and some do not. Ask your college or department finance office to tell you in writing rather than inferring it from whether tax was deducted.
Via employerWho: You
5
Take advice before exercising spinout share options
Oxford has an unusually high density of university spinouts paying partly in equity. How and when options are taxed depends heavily on the scheme they were granted under, and a careless decision at exercise is expensive and irreversible. This is a genuine case for paying an accountant rather than reading a forum.
In personWho: You
6
Work out your residence position in year one
The Statutory Residence Test determines UK tax residence by days present and connecting factors. With foreign income, overseas grants or assets abroad, take advice in the first year — the UK replaced the old non-domiciled regime with a residence-based system and the transitional rules are complex.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

National Insurance number
P60 from every employer — you get one per employment
P45, if you change jobs during the tax year
Grant, stipend or fellowship award letters stating the tax treatment
Share option grant documents and the scheme they were issued under

Things most newcomers don’t know

Two employments is normal in Oxford, and PAYE handles it badly by default.

Academics here routinely hold a college fellowship alongside a university post, and clinicians hold NHS and university contracts. That means two employers running PAYE on the same person. Only one can apply your personal allowance; the other should be on a BR or D0 code. When both apply the allowance you underpay all year and get a bill; when the codes are wrong the other way you overpay for months. Check the codes on both payslips in month one.

Source: GOV.UK — tax codes and second jobs

The 60% band between £100,000 and £125,140 is the largest hidden rate in the system.

The personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 above £100,000, so each extra pound in that range attracts the 40% headline rate plus the allowance lost — around 60% in effect. With two Oxford employments the combined figure can cross that line without either payslip looking like a high salary. Salary sacrifice into a pension is the standard remedy.

Source: GOV.UK — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances

Spinout equity is where Oxford people actually lose money to tax.

The university and its colleges generate an unusual number of spinouts, and equity is a normal component of pay here in a way it is not in most English cities. The tax treatment turns on the scheme the options were granted under and the timing of exercise, and the gap between handling it well and badly is large. This is the one situation where an accountant pays for themselves several times over.

Source: GOV.UK — tax and employee share schemes

The tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, which catches everyone once.

Almost no other country uses these dates. It determines which year your arrival income falls into, when your P60s arrive, and when Self Assessment is due. Newcomers routinely compute against a calendar year and get their first filing wrong.

Source: HMRC

Common mistakes to avoid

Holding a college and a university appointment and letting both payrolls apply your personal allowance.
Assuming a stipend or fellowship is tax-free because no tax was deducted at source.
Exercising spinout share options without advice on the scheme's treatment.
Accepting combined earnings between £100,000 and £125,140 without modelling the 60% effective band.
Counting your tax year as January to December rather than 6 April to 5 April.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.