Do You Get a P60 If You Don’t Pay Tax?

Yes, you get a P60 even if you didn’t pay any tax during the year. The rule is straightforward: if you were on an employer’s payroll on 5 April, the last day of the UK tax year, your employer must give you a P60 by 31 May, whether or not any income tax was deducted from your wages.¹ The certificate summarises your total pay and deductions for the whole tax year, so it remains a useful record of your earnings even when the tax figure reads zero.

Who Gets a P60

Regulation 67 of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 sets a single condition: if you’re employed on 5 April, your employer must issue you a P60.¹ Full-time, part-time, or just a few hours a month — the hours don’t change the entitlement. The deadline is 31 May following the end of the tax year, and the form can be issued on paper or electronically.²

Since April 2023, employers can send your P60 as a PDF by email or through a secure online payroll portal without asking for your consent first. A digital version carries the same legal weight as a printed copy. Most payroll systems generate P60s automatically for every employee on the books at year-end, so even if you earned well below the tax-free threshold, the certificate is produced as a matter of course.

Employers who miss the deadline risk penalties from HMRC, since late or missing payroll submissions can trigger fines.³ If yours is dragging their feet past 31 May, it’s worth a reminder that this is a legal obligation.

What a Zero-Tax P60 Shows

A P60 showing no tax still contains the same core information as any other. Regulation 67 requires it to include your total PAYE income for the year, any net tax deducted (which will show as nil), your National Insurance number, your tax code, and any statutory payments.¹

The total pay figure captures everything your employer paid you before deductions. When your earnings fall below the Personal Allowance of £12,570, the tax deducted field simply reads £0.00 or nil.⁴ The form is not incomplete or invalid because of it.

National Insurance appears in separate boxes, and this is where low earners should pay attention. NI uses different thresholds from income tax. For the 2025-26 tax year, the Lower Earnings Limit is £125 per week (£542 per month).⁵ If you earn above that threshold but below the Primary Threshold, where NI actually becomes payable, you’re treated as having paid contributions toward the State Pension even though nothing is deducted. The P60 records these figures, so you can check whether the year counts toward your pension.

Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, and Statutory Adoption Pay are included within your total pay and also shown separately on the form. That matters when you’re confirming your employer reported everything correctly.

Why It Still Matters When Your Tax Is Nil

The most common reasons to want a P60 have little to do with tax itself. Mortgage lenders, landlords, and benefit agencies all use it as an official record of income. HMRC’s own guidance lists loan and mortgage applications as a primary reason to keep it.²

Claiming Back Overpaid Tax

Even if you shouldn’t have paid any tax, you might have had some deducted during the year, particularly if you started a new job without a P45 and were put on an emergency tax code. The P60 at year-end shows the total tax taken, and you use it to claim the overpayment back from HMRC. Overpayments also crop up when you work multiple jobs at once, switch from full-time to part-time mid-year, or only work during university holidays. In each case, the P60 is the document HMRC needs to process a refund.

Mortgage and Loan Applications

Lenders typically ask for your last one to three P60s as proof of income. A P60 showing zero tax is fine for this because the lender cares about the earnings figure, not the tax figure. If you don’t have one for a given year because you weren’t employed on 5 April, lenders usually accept payslips or bank statements instead, though the process can be slower.

State Pension and NI Credits

Your P60 records the National Insurance data that feeds into your State Pension entitlement. If you earn above the Lower Earnings Limit but below the point where NI kicks in, the P60 confirms you’re building qualifying years without paying a penny. Losing these records can make it harder to spot gaps in your NI history later on.

When You Won’t Get One

Two situations commonly leave people without a P60 despite having earned money during the year.

Leaving Before 5 April

If you leave a job before 5 April, that employer won’t issue a P60 for the year. You receive a P45 when you leave, recording your pay and tax up to your leaving date.⁶ You hand parts of the P45 to your next employer so they can pick up where your tax code left off. If you start a new job and are still there on 5 April, that new employer issues your P60 for the whole year’s PAYE income, including amounts carried forward from the P45.

If you left a job and didn’t start another one before the tax year ended, you won’t get a P60 from anyone. Keep the P45 safe in that case, because it’s the closest equivalent proof of your earnings.

Self-Employment

Self-employed people don’t get P60s because they’re outside the PAYE system. Sole traders and freelancers report income through Self Assessment and keep their own records. The tax return and HMRC’s calculations serve the same verification purpose. If you’re both employed and self-employed, you’ll get a P60 for the employed portion and handle the rest through your tax return.

Lost P60s and Wrong Figures

If you’ve lost a P60 or need to check historical figures, HMRC’s personal tax account lets you view income and tax paid for the previous five years.⁷ You sign in with your Government Gateway credentials, and you may be asked to verify your identity with a passport or driving licence. The HMRC app gives the same access on your phone. The online record doesn’t replace the P60 itself, but it holds the same core data. Ask your employer first for a duplicate, since they’re required to keep payroll records and can reissue the form marked as a copy.²

If a P60 shows the wrong pay or tax, the fix starts with your employer, not HMRC. Employers correct payroll mistakes by submitting an updated Full Payment Submission with the right year-to-date figures, and then reissuing a corrected P60.⁸ If the employer has closed down or refuses to help, contact HMRC directly to have the figures checked against their records. Don’t ignore a wrong number just because your tax bill was zero. The earnings figure matters for NI credits and income verification just as much as the tax figure does.

1
Legislation.gov.uk. The Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 – Regulation 67
2
GOV.UK. Your P45, P60 and P11D Form – P60
3
HM Revenue and Customs. What Happens If You Do Not Report Payroll Information on Time
4
GOV.UK. Income Tax Rates and Personal Allowances
5
GOV.UK. Rates and Allowances – National Insurance Contributions
6
GOV.UK. What to Do When an Employee Leaves
7
GOV.UK. Personal Tax Account – Sign In or Set Up
8
GOV.UK. Fix Problems With Running Payroll