What are a P45 and a P60, and what do I do with them?
One is issued when you leave a job, one every April while you are in it. Losing either is survivable, but knowing which does what saves an emergency tax code.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 10 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
A P45 is issued when you leave a job and carries your pay and tax to date so your next employer taxes you correctly. A P60 is issued after 5 April by each employer you are still with, summarising the whole tax year. Keep P60s — they are the standard proof of income for mortgages, tax refunds and benefit claims. Neither can be reissued as a duplicate original, but the information can always be recovered.
These two documents cause more confusion than almost anything else in payroll, largely because they look similar and arrive at unpredictable times. The practical distinction is simple: a P45 travels with you between jobs, and a P60 is an annual statement of a completed year.
Step by step
- Give the P45 parts to your new employer.The form comes in parts. You keep one, and you hand the others to the new employer. Doing this promptly is what stops you being put on an emergency tax code and overpaying.
- If you have no P45, complete the starter checklist instead.New employers use HMRC's starter checklist to work out the right code when there is no P45 — a second job, a first job, or a P45 that never arrived. Answer it accurately; guessing here is the usual cause of a wrong code.
- Check the P45 figures against your final payslip.Total pay and total tax to date should match. If they do not, ask payroll before it propagates into the new job.
- File every P60.One per employer per tax year, issued after 5 April. Lenders, HMRC and benefit assessors all accept it as proof of income for the year, and it is the cleanest evidence there is.
- Know that duplicates are marked as such.An employer cannot reissue an original P45. They can give you a statement of earnings, and HMRC's own record shows the same figures through your personal tax account. Nothing is actually lost.
- Keep them for as long as you might need them.HMRC's general expectation is that you keep employment records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year, and longer if you file a tax return. In practice, keeping P60s indefinitely costs nothing and answers questions years later.
- Use the personal tax account as the backstop.Your HMRC online account shows employments, pay and tax by year. If a document is lost, that is where the figures live.
Questions people ask
What if I never got a P45?
Ask the old employer once, in writing. If it does not arrive, complete HMRC's starter checklist for the new job instead — that is exactly what it exists for, and your code will correct itself once HMRC reconciles the year.
Do I get a P60 if I left before April?
No. A P60 comes from an employer you are still employed by on 5 April. For a job you left, the P45 is the equivalent record.
Why does my P60 not match my payslips?
Usually because it reports taxable pay after salary sacrifice and pension deductions, which is not the same as gross pay. Compare like with like before assuming an error.