How much tax should my son pay?

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated: 08:36 EST, 13 April 2010

My son who is 20 has finally got his first full-time job.

He has been taken on by a local garage as an apprentice mechanic and will be earning the legal minimum wage.

How much can he expect to bring home each week? D.M., Feltham, Middlesex

Simon Moon from This is Money replies: The official minimum wage for employees age 18 to 21 is £4.83 an hour. This may not seem much to your son but he could have been offered less.

Apprentices are not protected by minimum wage rules for the first year of their employment.

Assuming he works for 40 hours, your son will earn £193.20 a week, which works out at £10,046.40 a year.

The threshold for income tax is £6,475, so he will have to pay basic rate tax at 20% on £3,571.40, which is £714.28 a year.

He will also have to pay National Insurance at 11% on his earnings above £5,720 a year. So another £475.80 a year will be taken from his wages.

If you add the tax and NI deductions together, you'll see they come to £1,190.08 a year, or £22.80 a week, leaving him with £170.40 weekly take home pay.

I hope he enjoys his new job.

›› Further information: Read more about the National Minimum Wage on the HM Revenue & Customs website