Claiming a tax refund

If you pay tax through PAYE and too much has been taken, you can get it back. Within the current tax year the usual fix is a corrected tax code, and the overpayment comes back through your payslip. For a tax year that has ended, HMRC normally works it out and sends a P800 calculation, and you claim the money through your personal tax account or wait for a cheque. You can also start a claim yourself on gov.uk if no letter arrives.

Why PAYE workers end up overpaying

PAYE is supposed to take exactly the right amount over the tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April. It goes wrong when the information payroll has is wrong or incomplete. The common causes in public sector jobs are:

• an emergency code such as 1257L W1 or M1 after starting a new post, so each month is taxed on its own and the unused allowance from earlier months is never given back
• a 0T or BR code on your only job, often after leaving one employer and starting another without a P45 reaching payroll
• leaving work partway through the year, for example to study, take a career break or retire, after paying tax as if you would earn all year
• two jobs with the Personal Allowance in the wrong one
• job expenses you never claimed, such as uniform laundering or professional fees

Starting a job in September, as many teachers and school staff do, is a classic case. If you had little or no income from April to August and your new employer used a cumulative code, the catch-up happens automatically. If they used an emergency code, it does not, and you may be overpaying every month until it is fixed. Our page on emergency tax codes covers how to spot this.

Getting money back during the tax year

For the current year, the fastest route is to make sure HMRC has the right figures. Sign in to your HMRC personal tax account or the HMRC app, check the employer and pay details, and update anything that is wrong, such as an estimate of your annual pay or a job that has ended. HMRC then issues a new code to payroll.

When the new code arrives, payroll recalculates your tax for the year so far. If the code is cumulative, the overpayment comes back as a lower tax figure, or even a negative one, on your next payslip. You do not need to make a separate claim. It can take a pay period or two for the code to reach your employer, so check the payslip after the next one too.

If you stopped working partway through the year and do not expect to work again before 5 April, the process is different. You can claim through gov.uk using the form for leaving work, and you will usually need your P45. If you start another job later in the same year, the new employer should use your P45 and refund through payroll.

The P800 letter

After the tax year ends, HMRC checks what every PAYE taxpayer paid against what they should have paid. If the figures do not match, it sends a P800 tax calculation. This can say you paid too much or too little.

A P800 showing a refund tells you how to get it. Usually you can claim online through your personal tax account and have the money paid into your bank account. If you do nothing, HMRC normally sends a cheque after a set period. The letter itself explains the timing.

Read the calculation before you accept it. Check:

• the pay figure for each job matches your P60 or final payslip
• the tax paid figure matches too
• the allowances listed are the ones you expect, including any Marriage Allowance or job expenses
• no job or benefit is listed that you never had

If something looks wrong, contact HMRC before claiming. A P800 based on wrong figures can be followed by a demand for money later. If the letter says you underpaid, see our page on underpaid tax and code adjustments.

Claiming for job expenses

Many refunds come from expenses employees never knew they could claim. Nurses, healthcare assistants, porters and others who wash their own uniform can claim a flat rate expense, and you can backdate that claim for up to 4 previous tax years. Fees paid to a professional body such as the NMC or HCPC can also count if the body is on HMRC’s approved list. These claims either change your tax code for the current year or produce a refund for past years.

The details are in our guides to uniform tax relief and tax relief on professional fees. The relief is worth the tax you would have paid on that amount, at your own rate, not the whole amount.

When you need Self Assessment instead

If you already file a Self Assessment return, refunds usually happen through the return rather than through a P800. Overpaid tax shows up in the calculation and you can ask HMRC to repay it. Self Assessment returns are due online by 31 January after the end of the tax year.

You do not need to register for Self Assessment just to get a PAYE refund. HMRC’s online services handle almost all employee refunds without a return.

Avoiding refund scams and agents

HMRC never tells you about a refund by text message, email or a phone call asking for bank details. Fake refund messages are among the most common scams in the UK. If you get one, do not click the link. Sign in to your personal tax account directly instead, where any genuine refund will show.

Some companies offer to claim refunds for you, especially for uniform and mileage, and take a percentage. You can make the same claims yourself on gov.uk for free. If you have already signed a form with an agent, HMRC may pay the refund to them, so read anything you are asked to sign.

For a refund that looks wrong, or a long delay, your first contact is HMRC through the details on the P800 or your personal tax account. If your problem is with what payroll deducted, your employer’s payroll or HR team can confirm which tax code they used and when it changed. You can see the code on any recent payslip, and our guide to checking your tax code shows where.