P45 Form — Details of Employee Leaving Work

A P45 is the HMRC form titled 'Details of employee leaving work' that your employer must give you when you stop working for them. It shows your tax code, gross pay, and Income Tax paid in the current tax year up to your leaving date, so a new employer or pension provider can continue PAYE without putting you on an emergency tax code. It is one of the main PAYE end-of-employment documents alongside the P60 (year-end summary) and P11D (benefits in kind).

By law your employer must issue a P45 'without unreasonable delay' after your last day of employment, and at the latest by the date of your final payslip. HMRC normally treats this as on or shortly after your leaving date. Most employers now produce the P45 from their payroll software at the same payroll run as your final payment. If you have not received it within a few weeks of leaving, contact your former employer's payroll or HR team first, then HMRC if there is no response.

Part 1 is sent by your old employer directly to HMRC. Part 1A is your personal copy — keep it for your records, your Self Assessment, or as proof of earnings. Parts 2 and 3 are the two copies you give to your new employer (or to Jobcentre Plus if you are claiming benefits): they keep Part 2 and submit Part 3 to HMRC so your tax code transfers across without you ending up on emergency tax.

Hand Parts 2 and 3 of your P45 to your new employer as soon as possible — ideally before your first payday. They will use the figures to apply your existing tax code so PAYE deductions are correct from your first wage. Keep Part 1A for yourself; do not give it away. If you have already had your first payday on emergency tax, your new employer can still process the P45 and HMRC will refund any overpayment through your following pay packet.

If you have lost your P45, never received one, or are starting your first UK job, your new employer will ask you to complete a Starter Checklist (the HMRC form that replaced the P46). It collects your National Insurance number and asks whether this is your only or main job, so HMRC can issue a tax code. Without either a P45 or a completed Starter Checklist, your employer must use an emergency tax code, which usually means you pay too much tax until the code is corrected.

Part 3 of the P45 lists your tax code at leaving (for example 1257L), your total pay and tax in the tax year so far, and the week or month number of your last pay. Your new employer keys these into their payroll software, which then continues PAYE on a cumulative basis — so your year-to-date allowance follows you across jobs. Without a P45, HMRC issues a code such as 0T, BR or 1257L W1/M1 (emergency basis) until the Starter Checklist is processed.

HMRC does not issue duplicate P45s. The P45 is generated by your former employer's payroll, so they are the only party who can supply a copy — and many employers will reprint Part 1A on request. If your old employer cannot help, sign in to your HMRC personal tax account at gov.uk to view the same pay and tax figures HMRC holds for you; you can show those to a new employer alongside a Starter Checklist. PDF Edit can open the official HMRC P45 layout if you need a clean printable reference.

Yes — keep Part 1A for your records. When you become self-employed you stop being on PAYE, but you still need the figures from your P45 to complete the employment pages of your Self Assessment tax return for the part of the tax year you were employed. Register as self-employed with HMRC separately for Class 2 / Class 4 National Insurance and Income Tax on your trading profits.

If you work through a recruitment agency or an umbrella company, your legal employer for PAYE is the agency or umbrella — not the end client. They issue the P45 when your engagement with them ends, not at the end of each assignment. If you switch between umbrellas or agencies, hand the P45 to the new one. If your contract ends but the umbrella keeps you on its books between assignments, you will normally only receive a P45 once you formally leave that umbrella.

Yes — the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will normally ask to see your P45 (Parts 2 and 3 or Part 1A) when you claim Universal Credit, new-style Jobseeker's Allowance, or Employment and Support Allowance after losing a job. It evidences your earnings, tax paid and leaving date for the current tax year. Hand Parts 2 and 3 to Jobcentre Plus in the same way you would hand them to a new employer; they will process them through HMRC.

A P45 is issued when you leave a job and covers the tax year up to your leaving date. A P60 is issued by your current employer at the end of every tax year (5 April) and shows your total taxable pay and Income Tax for that whole tax year, on 6 April to 5 April. You can only have one P60 per employer per tax year, but you can have several P45s if you change jobs — keep them all for Self Assessment, mortgage applications and benefit claims.

Yes. PDF Edit opens the P45 layout published by HM Revenue & Customs at gov.uk/paye-forms-p45-p60-p11d/p45. We do not recreate or modify the form — you complete the same document HMRC publishes. Note that the P45 is normally produced from your employer's payroll software rather than filled in by hand, so the on-screen version is most useful as a printable reference, for replacement copies, or for inspecting the figures from a P45 you have received.