As a student you are liable to pay Income Tax and National Insurance in the same way as anyone else. You don't have any exemption or reduction because of your student status.

RCA bursaries and other awards do not count as taxable income, but if you work during your studies you may have to pay tax and National Insurance, depending on how much you earn.

Everyone is entitled to a Personal Allowance which they can earn without having to pay tax. The allowance for this tax year (April 2010 to April 2011) is £6,475. This works out at £124.52 per week. If you do not earn this much then you will not have to pay tax. Anything above this amount is taxable income and taxed in different bands.

If you do have to pay tax then it will be deducted from your wages by your employer. If you are only going to work for a limited period during one tax year and you know that you will not earn more than the Personal Allowance then you can ask your employer for form P38(S), which you can complete in order to not be taxed on your earnings.

If you are self employed you will need to fill in a self assessment form.

It is possible that you could end up paying too much tax during the tax year. This could happen, for example, if you have been working full-time before you come to university and either stop working or cut your hours down when you start. In this instance your wages would decrease but you would previously have been paying tax as though you were on a full-time wage throughout the tax year.

If you think that you might have paid too much tax then you need to ask your employer which tax office they deal with, and contact them some time after the April at the end of the tax year. The tax office will check whether or not you've paid too much tax and send you a refund if you have. They may ask you to complete form P50.

If you have paid too much tax the tax office will not contact you and tell you.  You need to contact them yourself.

You should make sure that you keep the following documents safe:

• P60 – This is given to you at the end of each tax year and shows how much tax you have paid.
• P45 - You are given this when you stop working for an employer and it shows how much tax you have paid while you have worked for them.

This is payable if you earn more than £97 per week and is deducted from your wages by your employer. You pay 11% of your earnings above this amount. This amount is reduced to 1% on earnings above £844 per week.

If you are not working it is possible to make voluntary National Insurance contributions of £12.05 per week. By doing this you protect your National Insurance record and ensure that you receive a full pension when you retire.

If you are an International Student and wish to work in the UK, you will need to apply for a National Insurance number. You can for one once you have a job. You do not need a National Insurance Number to start work as your employer can give you a temporary number while you are applying. Call 0845 600 0643 to arrange an appointment.

Further information on all of the above is available at the

If you are looking for information on paying tax as a self employed person, you should check the information provided by Fuel RCA.