P60 explained: read the boxes and check your year-end pay

The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. An employer you work for on 5 April must normally supply that year’s P60 by 31 May, on paper or electronically. A job you left earlier normally gives you a P45 instead; do not wait for a P60 from every former employer.

The 2025/26 year ended on 5 April 2026, with an ordinary issue deadline of 31 May 2026. The 2026/27 year ends on 5 April 2027; its ordinary deadline is 31 May 2027. During that year, use current payslips to check current pay rather than expecting the final certificate early.

The form separates pay and tax in previous employments from pay and tax in this employment, then gives a total for the year. Earlier figures can be carried forward from starter records. They are not another payment by the current employer.

In the fictional example, £12,000 from a previous job plus £18,000 in this job produces £30,000 total pay. The corresponding tax figures add to £3,486. Adding the earlier £12,000 P45 to that £30,000 total would incorrectly create £42,000.

For a tax return, follow the employment-specific starred fields and the official employment notes for the year you are filing. Do not copy every year total into every employment entry. Our multiple-jobs guide explains how to organise the records.

The pay figure is for Income Tax purposes. It can include overtime, bonuses and statutory pay, while being lower than a quoted annual salary because of employment dates, salary sacrifice or a net-pay pension arrangement. It does not show every deduction needed to rebuild your bank deposits.

For example, a £36,000 salary paid for six ordinary full months gives £18,000 before considering extras and pension treatment. A P60 near £18,000 is not automatically missing half a year’s pay. First confirm the actual covered payments.

Use the salary-to-P60 reconciliation to check the cause of a difference. Do not subtract the Personal Allowance from the displayed pay before comparing it with taxable payslip totals.

National Insurance has its own table-letter and earnings-band entries. Those bands are not an additional whole salary to add to the Income Tax pay figure. Different NI categories or periods can make an annual deduction look unlike a simple annual-salary estimate.

Student and postgraduate loan deductions have separate boxes. Keep them separate from Income Tax and from each other. Compare the relevant employment’s records; if something is missing, ask payroll which payments and adjustments its return included.

Statutory payments identified elsewhere on the P60 are already within the employment-pay total. If £18,000 pay includes £2,000 statutory maternity pay, adding another £2,000 would double-count it. The form is a summary, not a complete eligibility assessment for statutory pay.

A tax refund is shown with a refund marker. In the checker, enter a £120 refund as -120, not as another deduction. If earlier tax was £600 and the later amount is a £120 refund, the signed total is £480.

The final tax code records the final instruction used. It cannot establish, on its own, what your entire year’s tax should have been. Other jobs, benefits, reliefs and earlier deductions can matter. A P60 is useful evidence for a tax check, rather than proof that a particular refund is due.

If the issue is the code rather than the recorded pay, use the code-checking steps. For a possible completed-year overpayment, follow the relevant refund route.

If you lost your certificate, ask the employer for a replacement, including checking any old payroll portal while you still have access. If the employer cannot provide it, HMRC’s personal tax account or app can show the underlying pay and tax information. That information is useful, but it is not a new employer-issued P60.

For an incorrect certificate, ask payroll which employment, payments, earlier-employer values and corrections its figures contain. An employer can provide a replacement P60 or a letter confirming the change. A correction to the certificate and a correction to payroll reporting both need attention where applicable.

A useful question is: “Please reconcile this employment’s P60 pay and tax with my final payslip, identify any earlier-employer figures, and confirm the record or correction I should retain.” Send actual documents through the employer’s private channel.