What Is a P60? Your UK End-of-Year Certificate Explained

A P60 is the end-of-year certificate your employer gives you after the tax year closes on 5 April. It sets out your total pay, the Income Tax and National Insurance deducted from it, and your final tax code for the year just gone. If you were working for an employer on 5 April, they must give you a P60 by 31 May, on paper or electronically (GOV.UK). This guide covers what each figure on it means, how it differs from a P45 and a P11D, and which numbers you copy onto a tax return.

Key Takeaways

• A P60 is a year-end summary: one page showing your total pay, tax, National Insurance and final tax code for a single employment over the tax year to 5 April.
• You get one P60 for each job you still hold on 5 April, and your employer must provide it by 31 May following the end of the tax year.
• It is proof of income, so you need it for mortgage and loan applications, to reclaim overpaid tax, and to fill in a Self Assessment return.
• A P60 is not a P45 (which you get when you leave a job) or a P11D (which lists taxable benefits like a company car).
• If you lose a P60, your employer can issue a replacement, or you can read the same figures in your HMRC personal tax account.

What is a P60?

HMRC's own definition is plain: a P60 is "an end of year certificate that shows details of an employee's pay, tax, NIC and other credits or deductions" (PAYE manual PAYE61185). It is the single document that totals up a whole tax year of payslips into one figure for pay and one for tax, so you and HMRC can see what came in and what was taken off.

Your employer, not HMRC, produces the P60. By 31 May each year they must give one to every employee who was working for them on 5 April and had tax or National Insurance deducted during the year (GOV.UK). You get a separate P60 for each job, so two part-time roles held on 5 April mean two P60s. If you left a job before 5 April, you do not get a P60 from that employer; you already have a P45 from when you left.

The P60 reports PAYE employment only. Income from self-employment, rent or dividends stays off it, because no employer handled that money. That split matters when you file a return.

What is on a P60, figure by figure

Every P60 follows the same HMRC layout. These are the figures you will see, and what each one is telling you.

• Pay. Your total gross pay for the year from this employment, shown as a "Total for year" figure. Where you changed jobs mid-year, the form separates pay "in previous employment(s)" from pay "in this employment" so the two add up to the full-year total.
• Income tax deducted. The total PAYE tax your employer took from that pay and sent to HMRC. If this figure has an "R" beside it, you were refunded tax during the year rather than charged it (SA102 notes).
• National Insurance contributions. The NI deducted "in this employment", listed against the category letter your employer used (category A for most employees). It is split across earnings bands, which is why there is more than one NI figure.
• Statutory payments. Any Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared Parental or Parental Bereavement Pay included in your pay for the year.
• Student and postgraduate loan deductions. The amount repaid through payroll, shown separately for a student loan and a postgraduate loan.
• Final tax code. The code your employer was using at the end of the year, including a Week 1 or Month 1 marker if one applied. If that code looks wrong, our guide to UK tax codes explains what each part means and how to correct it.

The pay and tax totals are the figures that do the real work. Everything else on the certificate supports them or records a specific deduction.

P45 vs P60 vs P11D

These three PAYE forms get mixed up because they all come from an employer and all carry pay or tax information. They answer different questions.

A P45 comes in parts: when you start a new job you hand the new employer Parts 2 and 3 and keep Part 1A for your own records (GOV.UK). A P11D only appears if your employer gave you benefits they did not payroll; if you do not receive one by 6 July, ask for it.

What you need a P60 for

A P60 is the standard proof of income in the UK, so it earns its keep well after the tax year ends.

• Mortgage and loan applications. Lenders ask for recent P60s to confirm your annual income (GOV.UK).
• Reclaiming overpaid tax. If an emergency code or a mid-year job change meant you paid too much, the P60 is the evidence behind a refund claim.
• Filling in a Self Assessment return. The pay and tax figures copy straight across, which is the next section.
• Checking your tax was right. The final tax code and the tax total together tell you whether PAYE settled your bill for the year or left a gap.

Keep each P60. A lender or HMRC query years later is far easier to answer when you can produce the certificate than reconstruct the year from memory.

How your P60 feeds a Self Assessment return

If you file Self Assessment, the P60 is where your employment figures come from. On the Employment page, box 1 "Pay from this employment" takes the pay figure from your P60 or P45, and box 2 "UK tax taken off" takes the tax figure (SA102 notes). You fill in a separate Employment page for each job, so three P60s mean three pages.

Here is how it works in practice. Say your P60 shows pay of £32,000 and tax deducted of £3,886 for 2025/26 on the standard 1257L code. The £3,886 is right: with a £12,570 Personal Allowance, £19,430 of that pay is taxable, and £19,430 at 20% is £3,886. On your return, £32,000 goes in box 1 and £3,886 in box 2. HMRC already holds the matching record from your employer. If instead the tax figure read "£150 R", that is a refund, and you enter it as minus £150 in box 2.

Two cases change where the money goes. If you took income as a subcontractor under the Construction Industry Scheme, that pay belongs on the Self-employment pages, not the Employment page, even though tax was deducted at source. And side income with no P60 behind it, from freelancing, consulting or selling online, goes through the self-employment section instead. Many people filing a return are in exactly that position: a PAYE job that produces a P60 and a sideline that does not.

That is the gap SparkReceipt is built for. When you earn on the side alongside a job, your P60 handles the employment half, but the profit from your own work depends on the expenses you tracked through the year. SparkReceipt captures that half: photograph a receipt and the AI reads the date, amount and category, forward an invoice and it logs the income, so the figures are ready when you register as a sole trader and file rather than dug out in January. When the Self Assessment deadline comes round you pull a filtered report or hand the totals to your accountant. See pricing.

What to do if your P60 is missing or wrong

Lost it? Ask your employer first. They can issue a replacement P60, usually marked "duplicate" (GOV.UK). If the employer cannot help, or has closed down, sign in to your HMRC personal tax account or the HMRC app, where the same pay and tax details are held, or contact HMRC directly for the figures.

If a figure looks wrong, compare the P60 with your final payslip of the tax year, since the two should match. A mismatch is usually a payroll error, so raise it with your employer, who reports the corrected figures to HMRC. Do not use a figure you think is right on a tax return; get the record fixed at source so your P60, your employer's report to HMRC and your return agree.

Common misconceptions about the P60

"A P60 means my tax is settled, so there is nothing to file." Not in every case. The P60 shows what PAYE collected, but if you have untaxed income, high income, or you are a company director, HMRC may still require a return. The P60 feeds that return; it does not replace it.

"My P60 and my P45 are the same thing." They are not. You get a P45 when you leave a job, covering pay and tax up to your leaving date. You get a P60 only if you are still employed on 5 April, covering the full year. In a year where you changed jobs, you may hold both.

FAQ

When should I get my P60? By 31 May following the end of the tax year on 5 April. Your employer can provide it on paper or electronically, and the deadline is the same either way.

Do I get a P60 if I am self-employed? No. A P60 comes from an employer who runs PAYE. If you are a sole trader, there is no employer and no P60; your income and tax are worked out through Self Assessment instead.

I had two jobs, do I get two P60s? Yes, if you held both on 5 April. Each employer issues its own P60, and if you file Self Assessment you complete a separate Employment page for each one.

Can I get a P60 for a previous year? Ask the employer from that year for a duplicate, or read the pay and tax details for past years in your HMRC personal tax account. HMRC holds the figures even when an old paper P60 is long gone.

What is the difference between a P60 and a P11D? A P60 totals your pay, tax and National Insurance. A P11D lists taxable benefits in kind, such as a company car or private medical insurance, that were not taxed through payroll. You might receive both.

Key takeaways

• A P60 is a single-page, end-of-year certificate of your pay, tax, National Insurance and final tax code for one employment across the tax year to 5 April.
• Your employer must give you a P60 by 31 May for each job you still held on 5 April; leave a job earlier and you get a P45 instead.
• It is the UK's standard proof of income, needed for mortgages, loan applications, tax refunds and Self Assessment.
• On a tax return, the P60 pay figure goes in Employment box 1 and the tax figure in box 2, with an "R" marking a refund you enter as a negative.
• Lose a P60 and your employer can reissue it, or you can read the same figures in your HMRC personal tax account.