Police Uniform Tax Refund for Officers and Police Staff

A police uniform tax refund is the tax saved through HMRC’s flat rate expense for police uniform upkeep. HMRC sets £140 a year for officers up to and including chief inspector and for PCSOs, and £60 for other police employees except special constables. How much comes back depends on your tax rate.

For officers, rank sets the rate, not the job you’re doing this month. HMRC’s manual says the £140 can be given even when an officer’s current duties don’t call for a uniform, so plain-clothes officers inside the rank limit can claim too.

Timing matters as well. If you’re making your first police uniform tax refund claim during 2026/27, the earliest year you can still include is 2022/23, and its deadline is 5 April 2027.

Serving officers, police staff, special constables and retired officers are all covered here. Three things change the answer: your role, whether your force already pays towards uniform costs, and whether you send HMRC a Self Assessment return.

What a police uniform tax refund is worth

The £140 or £60 isn’t a payment. It’s a deduction from the pay HMRC taxes you on, and what you get back is the tax on that deduction at your own rate.

At 20%, the £140 officer rate cuts your tax by up to £28 a year, and at 40% the saving can reach £56. On the £60 staff rate, those two tax rates give up to £12 and £24.

Here’s how it adds up for an officer who pays tax at 20%, pays at least £28 of it each year, hasn’t claimed before and applies in September 2026:

• The four earlier tax years, 2022/23 to 2025/26, are worth £28 each, which makes £112.
• The 2026/27 tax year adds another £28.
• All five years together are worth £140.

HMRC’s manual gives officers £140 for every year from 2008/09 onwards, so the same figure applies to each of those five years. A member of police staff on £60 in the same position would see £12 a year, or £60 across the five.

If you pay Scottish income tax, work the figures out at the rate you actually paid in each year. The limits that can shrink a year’s figure are set out in the section on retired, part-time and new officers.

Plain-clothes duties don’t stop police uniform tax relief

The officer rate follows rank. HMRC’s flat rate list gives police officers £140 up to and including chief inspector, and the officer line stops at that rank.

A move into plain-clothes work within that limit keeps you on the same rate. HMRC’s manual ties the £140 to rank, whatever your present duties ask you to wear.

A police officer tax rebate claimed on the flat rate starts from this figure. That figure is the police flat rate expense allowance, and HMRC doesn’t ask for receipts to claim it.

The general uniform conditions still have to be met:

• The uniform identifies you as a police officer, which is the example HMRC’s own guidance uses.
• Cleaning, repairs and replacements come out of your own pocket.
• The claim is for upkeep, because the price of buying uniform in the first place isn’t covered.
• Your force doesn’t offer a free laundry service that you decide to skip.

Dog handlers’ extra costs are covered separately in the police dog handler tax rebate guide.

Special constables usually can’t claim; other staff can

Special constable uniform tax relief works differently, because the deduction has to come off pay from the same role. According to HMRC’s manual on special constables, specials are volunteers who are usually unpaid for police work, so there’s no income for the flat rate to reduce.

The same page rules out putting an officer’s flat rate allowance into a special’s tax code for their full-time job.

A paid special is treated as the exception. If a special receives a bounty or other pay for police duties, PAYE applies to that pay, and the flat rate can then be given against the police role.

Other police employees are on £60, provided they clean their own uniforms, a condition set out in HMRC’s manual. On HMRC’s list, that £60 line names special constables as excluded.

PCSOs, including those in the Metropolitan Police, share the officers’ £140 on HMRC’s flat rate list. The PCSO tax relief guide covers their other work costs.

Retired, part-time or new: each tax year counts

Each year you claim for is looked at on its own. You need to have paid tax in it, the relief for that year can’t exceed the tax you paid, and the claim has to be made within four years of the year ending.

For a retired officer, those tests point to the service years still inside the window. If you left in March 2024, that means 2022/23 and 2023/24.

Part-time officers and new starters face the same year-by-year test. HMRC’s police rates are set by rank and role, while the tax you paid in a year caps what that year can give back.

Here’s where the cap bites. An officer who paid only £20 of tax in a year can get no more than £20 of relief for it, even though 20% of £140 is £28.

If you joined the force during 2026/27, the current year is where your claim starts.

A force-paid police uniform allowance reduces your claim

A police uniform allowance from your force changes the figure you can claim. If the force covers the whole cost, HMRC says there’s no relief left.

Where it pays part, you take that amount off the flat rate before working out the tax. HMRC’s manual makes the same reduction when a force provides some cleaning facilities.

Say your force contributes £40 a year towards cleaning:

• Take the £40 away from the £140 officer rate, which leaves £100.
• At 20% tax, that £100 is worth £20 a year.
• At 40% tax, the same £100 is worth £40 a year.

Staff on the £60 rate follow the same steps from the lower starting point. If a contribution matches or beats the flat rate, nothing is left to claim on the flat rate.

Claim police uniform tax back online or on paper

You can claim police uniform tax back in one of three ways:

• Online, HMRC’s claim service on GOV.UK checks whether you qualify and takes the claim, with uniform upkeep listed as its own option.
• On paper, a P87 police uniform claim is the only postal format HMRC accepts, and the form is downloaded, completed, printed and posted.
• Through Self Assessment, the claim has to go on your return if you file one, with the flat rate in box 18 of the SA102 employment page.

HMRC’s guidance on claiming by post sets a ceiling for the paper route. It works when your total expenses for a tax year are £2,500 or less, and anything above £2,500 needs a Self Assessment return instead.

HMRC’s online service lets you pick more than one kind of expense in the same claim. Other police expense questions are covered in the site’s police tax rebate FAQs.

After you’ve claimed, HMRC’s reply-time checker estimates when you’ll hear back, and it’s refreshed weekly.

Your police uniform tax code usually carries the relief

For the tax year you’re in, HMRC usually changes your code, which cuts the tax taken from your wages. Earlier years work differently: HMRC either alters your code or pays you a refund.

A first claim covering several years can show up in both ways at once, as a code change and as money back.

To make sense of the letters and numbers, see the site’s explainer on what a tax code is.

HMRC’s guidance covers the code change for the year you claim in, and updates it in your personal tax account so you can check and change it in the future.

Police uniform tax refund: what to do next

Start with your role. PCSOs and officers at chief inspector rank or below work from £140, other police staff who clean their own uniforms work from £60, and unpaid special constables have no pay for the relief to reduce.

Next, take off anything your force already pays and multiply what’s left by your tax rate. Each year needs tax paid in it.

Choose your route: HMRC’s online service, a P87 by post when a year’s expenses are £2,500 or less, or your Self Assessment return if you file one.

In 2026/27, a first police uniform tax refund claim can still reach back to 2022/23 until 5 April 2027. For how uniform claims work in other jobs, see the uniform tax refund guide.

Key Takeaways

The main points:

• HMRC’s flat rate is £140 a year for PCSOs and for officers at chief inspector rank or below.
• Other police employees who clean their own uniforms are on £60, and HMRC excludes special constables from that line.
• The refund is the tax on the flat rate, so £140 is worth up to £28 a year at 20% or £56 at 40%.
• Anything your force pays towards uniform costs comes off the flat rate first, and full payment leaves nothing to claim.
• In 2026/27, a claim can cover the current year and 2022/23 to 2025/26, provided you paid tax in each of those years.
• Claims go through HMRC’s online service, a P87 by post for yearly expenses of £2,500 or less, or a Self Assessment return.