A tax code is a number that represents how much you can earn before paying income tax, and I think it is often manipulated on an individual basis for various reasons.
Incoming email from the human resources department at work:
Over the past few days it has come to our attention that a number of employees have recently received new tax code notices from HMRC (Inland Revenue) that are incorrect. From BBC reports, this appears to be a widespread problem due to the introduction of a new computer system. I suggest that you carefully check your tax coding notice: In principle it should contain a) a personal allowance, b) the value of benefits in kind (e.g. health insurance) based on your last P11D and c) adjustments because of your personal tax circumstances (e.g. underpaid tax from previous years).
If you think your tax code is wrong, I suggest you phone HMRC on the phone number stated on the notice. If your code is wrong it will mean too much (or too little tax) is deducted.
Please note the Company is obliged to follow the tax coding notice it receives and therefore the onus is on you to contact HMRC to correct any errors that may appear.
It’s hard to know where to begin. Those paragraphs illustrate a whole raft of coercive relationships, broken promises, illusions, lies, twisted assumptions and mental gymnastics that stand between me and my wages. Imagine trying to explain all that to a small child who has just learnt to say “mine”. They’d think you were mad. How many years of “education” does it take before those paragraphs make “sense”? The meta-context on display here is utterly alien.