The 942L tax code was a PAYE code used in the 2013/14 tax year. It told your employer or pension provider to give you a tax-free allowance of between £9,420 and £9,429 before deducting income tax, which sat just below that year’s standard Personal Allowance of £9,440. If you’re seeing 942L on an old payslip, P60, or P45, it almost certainly comes from that period.
What the 942 and the L Actually Mean
Every PAYE code splits into a number and a letter. The number is shorthand for your tax-free allowance: HMRC drops the last digit of the full figure, so 942 stands for an allowance somewhere between £9,420 and £9,429.1Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. PAYE Codes Payroll software multiplies the code number by 10 to reconstruct the approximate tax-free amount, then spreads it evenly across each pay period so a roughly equal slice comes out tax-free each week or month.
The letter L confirms you were on the basic Personal Allowance with no special adjustments.2GOV.UK. PAYE Manual: How Suffix Codes Are Used and Calculated It’s the most common suffix and tells the payroll system to apply the standard tax bands. If you had the full, unadjusted Personal Allowance for a given year, the number in your code would match the published allowance with the last digit removed.
Why 942L and Not 944L
The default code for someone on the full 2013/14 Personal Allowance was 944L, because the allowance that year was £9,440.3GOV.UK. Income Tax Rates and Allowances: Current and Past A code of 942L means your allowance was trimmed by roughly £20. That kind of minor reduction usually reflects a small taxable benefit-in-kind, estimated untaxed savings interest, or a leftover balance from a previous year’s underpayment being collected through the code.
The surrounding years produced very different codes: the Personal Allowance was £8,105 in 2012/13 and £10,000 in 2014/15, so 942L firmly places you in 2013/14. If you’re going through old records, it’s worth checking whether that small reduction was justified. Even a £20 shortfall in allowance, held for a full year, changes the tax you paid.
If You Still See 942L on a Current Payslip
The current Personal Allowance for 2026/27 is £12,570, giving a standard tax code of 1257L.4House of Commons Library. Direct Taxes: Rates and Allowances The £12,570 figure has been frozen since 2021/22 and stays fixed through at least 2027/28.
Anyone still on 942L today has a serious problem. That code has not been correct for well over a decade, and it would mean you’re being taxed as though your tax-free amount is roughly £9,420 rather than £12,570. That gap, spread across a year, is a substantial overpayment. Contact HMRC as soon as you spot it.
The quickest route is your HMRC Personal Tax Account online. Sign in and use the “Check your Income Tax” service, which lets you see your current code, report income changes, and flag errors directly.5GOV.UK. Check Your Income Tax for the Current Year If online access isn’t an option, call the Income Tax helpline on 0300 200 3300, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.6GOV.UK. Income Tax: Enquiries Once HMRC processes the update, you’ll receive a P2 coding notice confirming your new code and explaining how each element of your allowance was calculated.7GOV.UK. P2 Tax Coding Notice Your employer receives the updated instruction electronically and applies it in the next available payroll run, usually within one or two pay periods.
Can You Still Claim a Refund for 2013/14?
For most people, no. HMRC applies a strict four-year window for refund claims. You must submit within four years of the end of the tax year in which the overpayment happened, and the deadline for the 2013/14 tax year passed on 5 April 2018.8GOV.UK. Tax Overpayments and Underpayments: If You’re Due a Refund Standard refund claims for that period are closed.
There is one narrow exception. Where HMRC or another government department made an error in your records, HMRC may agree to repay under a separate concession. You’ll need clear evidence that the mistake was theirs, not yours, so gather your P60, any P45s from that year, payslips, and the P2 coding notice if you still have it before you approach them.
Checking the Code Against Your 2013/14 Records
Three documents matter when you’re verifying whether 942L was applied correctly:
- Your P60 for 2013/14 shows the total pay and tax deducted across the full year. Employers had to issue P60s by 31 May after the tax year ended.9GOV.UK. Your P45, P60 and P11D Form
- Any P45 from a job you left during that year records pay and tax up to your leaving date.9GOV.UK. Your P45, P60 and P11D Form
- A P11D for that year would list taxable expenses and benefits your employer reported outside payroll, such as private medical insurance or a company car. A benefit reported on a P11D is a common reason your allowance would have been reduced from 944L to something like 942L.10GOV.UK. Expenses and Benefits for Employers: Reporting and Paying
Compare the figures across these forms and your payslips. The total pay and total tax on the P60 should match the sum of your payslips. If a P11D benefit explains the £20 reduction, the code was doing its job. If nothing in your records accounts for the trim, that’s where any conversation with HMRC would start.