How Do I Find My Tax Code?

Your tax code appears on your payslip, in your HMRC personal tax account, on the HMRC app, on a P45 or P60, plus whichever coding notice HMRC last sent you. The payslip is quickest. Your personal tax account is the most complete, because it shows every code HMRC has issued across all your jobs and pensions.

So how do I find my tax code, and does it matter which of those I look at? It does. Your payslip carries the current tax code your employer’s payroll is running today. HMRC’s own record carries the code it has issued, and the two can sit out of step for weeks at a time.

When take-home pay shifts and no pay rise explains it, a code payroll hasn’t caught up with is one cause worth ruling out. Nobody does that checking for you. GOV.UK is direct about where responsibility sits, and it sits with the taxpayer rather than the employer.

Where is my tax code on my payslip?

Payslips show it weekly or monthly, usually printed near your National Insurance number under a heading like Tax Code or PAYE Code.

For the 2026/27 tax year the standard version is tax code 1257L, which reflects a personal allowance of £12,570. Once you have the number in front of you, the free tax code checker is the next step. Digital payslips carry the same field, so a lost paper copy is not a dead end where your employer runs an online payroll portal.

Here is a wrinkle almost nobody mentions. The tax code is not one of the things a payslip is legally required to show. GOV.UK’s list covers your pay before and after deductions, the deductions that vary each time you’re paid, and your hours where pay depends on them. Payroll software prints the code as a matter of course, so it is nearly always there, but a payslip without it is not breaking any rule.

Check your most recent payslip rather than an older one. Codes change during the year, and an earlier slip may show a code HMRC has since replaced.

One more limit. A payslip shows the code for that employer only, and it shows what payroll is running rather than what HMRC has issued. Where those two have drifted apart, a payslip on its own won’t reveal it.

Your personal tax account shows every tax code

HMRC’s own account is the only place that shows every code you hold in a single view. GOV.UK lists the service as check your tax code for the current year, which is the same account under a different name.

Checking it takes a couple of minutes:

• Go to the personal tax account on GOV.UK and sign in.
• Open the Income Tax section and look for the PAYE part of it.
• Read the HMRC tax code listed against each job and each pension.
• Open the breakdown behind the code to see the allowances and deductions used to build it.

That last step is the one people skip, and it’s the useful one. The code alone gives you the answer. The breakdown shows how the number was arrived at, which is what you need if it looks wrong. The HMRC app draws on the same record, so it shows your current tax code without a full sign-in once you have set it up.

Sign-in has been changing. Government Gateway details that already work still work. Anyone registering with HMRC for the first time since February 2026 goes through GOV.UK One Login instead, and a One Login set up for a different government service can’t yet be used to reach HMRC. Either route needs your National Insurance number and photo ID.

One thing to be clear about: HMRC does not text or email you offering a tax refund. A message like that is not a route to your tax code, whatever it looks like.

What to do if you can’t sign in

The identity check is where the online route can stop.

HMRC verifies you against UK-issued photo ID, typically a passport or driving licence, alongside your National Insurance number. Without those documents the digital check may not complete.

While that is being sorted out, your code is still reachable:

• Ask your employer’s payroll or HR team, since they hold the code HMRC has sent them.
• Dig out a P45, P60 or coding notice, since all three print it.
• Use UK’s tax code checker tool, which walks through what a code means and takes about five minutes.
• Phone HMRC, with your National Insurance number to hand.

None of those gives you the full breakdown the account does. They will tell you what your current tax code is, which is usually the question you arrived with.

Which tax code your P60 and P45 show

Paper sources each freeze the code at a different moment, and that is exactly what makes them useful.

• Your P60 arrives after the tax year ends and records the code in force on 5 April, which makes it the cleanest evidence of a code for a year that has already closed.
• Your P45 shows the code that applied when you left a job, and your next employer works from it until HMRC issues something else.
• A coding notice sets out how the code was built, listing the allowances and deductions behind the number. GOV.UK calls this letter a Tax Code Notice; the form reference quoted elsewhere is P2, sometimes written as the P2 notice of coding.

The coding notice is the odd one out, because it shows what HMRC intended rather than what your employer ended up applying. Reading it next to a payslip is how you spot a difference between the two.

Can I have more than one tax code?

Yes. HMRC issues a separate code for every source of PAYE income you have, which is why a single payslip cannot give you the whole picture.

Your main job usually carries your personal allowance. Where that allowance is already used up, the second source gets coded at a flat rate instead: a BR tax code taxes all of it at the basic rate, and a D0 code does the same at the higher rate.

Neither is an error in itself, though the split can be wrong if HMRC is working from out-of-date income figures.

There is more in the guide to how tax codes work with two jobs, and tax code letters explained in full.

The tax code for pension income works the same way and appears in your personal tax account alongside any employment codes. Your provider sends a P60 after the tax year ends, and issues a payslip when the code changes rather than with every payment.

The State Pension is the exception. It is paid without tax taken off, so it carries no code of its own. Where tax is due on it, HMRC usually collects that through the code on your wages or another pension, and sends a Simple Assessment where there is nothing to code it against.

When your tax code and HMRC’s don’t match

Two codes, two sources, and the comparison takes about a minute.

Put the PAYE tax code on your latest payslip next to the code in your personal tax account. If they match, your employer is running what HMRC issued, and any problem lies in the figures behind the code rather than the code itself.

If they don’t, one of two things has happened: HMRC has issued a new code that payroll hasn’t picked up, or payroll is running something HMRC never sent.

Where payroll is behind, your employer is the place to raise it. Where the code itself is wrong, the change has to come from HMRC, because employers operate codes rather than decide them.

Circumstances that put a code out of date include a job started without a P45, a company benefit starting or stopping, and an emergency tax code that was never replaced. There is more in the guide to putting a wrong tax code right.

An in-year correction usually shows up in your next pay packet. Once the year has closed, HMRC works out what was actually due across your income and sends a calculation setting out a refund or an amount owed.

Find my tax code: what to do next

How do I find my tax code in the least time? The payslip. Your personal tax account answers it most completely, and it is the only source showing every job and pension at once. P45s, P60s and coding notices fill in the years the account does not put in front of you.

When should I check my tax code? Twice as a minimum: when a new tax year starts, and again after anything changes about your work, your pension or your company benefits. Comparing the two sources takes a minute and catches the gap between what HMRC issued and what your employer is running.

Anything wrong has to go back to HMRC, since that is where codes are set. The other tax codes guides cover what happens after that.

Key takeaways

Five things to take away the next time you ask how do I find my tax code:

• Your payslip shows the code your employer is running, and it’s the quickest place to look.
• Your personal tax account and the app both show every code issued, plus the allowances and deductions behind each one, for this year and earlier ones.
• A P60 records the code at the end of a tax year, a P45 the code when you left a job, and a coding notice how the number was built.
• Every job and every pension gets its own code, so one payslip never shows the full picture.
• Only HMRC issues or changes a code, and GOV.UK places the checking duty on the taxpayer rather than the employer.

Common questions about finding my tax code

The answers below draw on GOV.UK’s published guidance on tax codes.

How do I find my tax code for a previous tax year?

Sign in and look. GOV.UK confirms that checking your tax code online or through the HMRC app also lets you find your code for previous tax years, so the history sits behind the same login as your current one.

On paper, the P60 for the year in question prints the code that applied on 5 April, and a P45 does the same job for a year in which you changed jobs. Your personal tax account also holds five years of income from work and Income Tax paid, which sits alongside those codes.

That combination matters if you think a wrong tax code cost you money, because it is the evidence any claim will rest on.

I’ve just started a job and haven’t been paid yet. What code will I be on?

Until HMRC has your details, your employer works from whatever it holds. A P45 from your last job gives it a code to use. Without one, you complete a starter checklist, and the answers you give decide the code applied to your first payslip.

That first code may be a temporary one. An emergency tax code taxes each payday on its own rather than across the year, which can mean paying too much or too little until the right code arrives.

Your first payslip shows whichever code was used. Once HMRC has gathered your details from the old and new employer, it issues a settled code and your personal tax account updates to match.

Does my employer decide my tax code?

No. HMRC issues codes; employers apply the one they receive. Payroll cannot alter a code just because you have asked it to.

That split decides who you contact. If your payslip shows an old code and your personal tax account shows a new one, payroll has not caught up and your employer can sort it. If both show the same code and it is wrong, the fix has to come from HMRC.

How far back can I claim overpaid tax from a wrong tax code?

The window is limited rather than open-ended. The limit applied to overpayment claims is four years counted from the end of the tax year concerned, which means the oldest year in that window drops out each 5 April.

Check the current position on GOV.UK before assuming a year is still open. Gather the P60s for the years you are claiming as well, since those carry both the code used and the tax deducted.

I’m paid by an agency or umbrella company. Where’s my tax code?

On the payslip your umbrella or agency issues, because that business is your employer for PAYE purposes. An umbrella company takes temporary workers on as its own employees and handles their pay and tax like any other employer, and under agency PAYE you join the agency’s own payroll. Either way, HMRC sends the code there.

Changing assignment is what catches people out. Staying with the same umbrella gives you one continuous employment, so moving between end clients leaves the code alone. Moving to a different umbrella starts a fresh employment, and a new employer without your previous pay and tax details has to use an emergency code until HMRC catches up.

Your personal tax account lists each employment separately, which is the quickest way to see whether HMRC thinks you have one job or several.