How to Fill Out HMRC Form P46: Employee Statements and Tax Codes

To fill out HMRC Form P46, now called the Starter Checklist, download the PDF from GOV.UK or ask your new employer for a copy, enter your personal details, tick the one employee statement that matches your situation, answer the student loan questions, and return it before your first payday.1HM Revenue & Customs. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job Your employer uses it to set your tax code and register you with HMRC through PAYE, so accuracy here decides how much income tax comes out of your first few pay packets.

When You Need the Checklist

Complete a Starter Checklist any time you start a new job and cannot hand over a P45 from a previous employer. Common situations include:

  • Your first job, or your first job since 6 April (the start of the UK tax year).
  • You had a previous job but lost your P45 or never received one.
  • You are taking a second job while still working elsewhere or drawing a pension.
  • You have been receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, or Incapacity Benefit since 6 April.

If you do have a valid P45, give that to your employer instead. It already contains your tax code and year-to-date figures, so the checklist is not needed.

Where to Get the Form

Most employers hand it out during onboarding. If yours does not, download it from GOV.UK, print it, and complete it by hand.2HM Revenue & Customs. Starter Checklist A separate version exists for employees seconded to the UK by an overseas employer.1HM Revenue & Customs. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job

Filling In Your Personal Details

The top of the form collects the basics your employer needs to set up your payroll record:

  • Last name and first names, as they appear on official documents.
  • Date of birth.
  • Home address.
  • National Insurance number, in the format AB 12 34 56 C. You can find it on a payslip, P60, or the letter HMRC sent when you turned 16.

The National Insurance number field is marked “if known,” so you can leave it blank if you genuinely do not have one.2HM Revenue & Customs. Starter Checklist Skipping it makes it harder for HMRC to match you to your tax record and raises the chance of an emergency code, so track it down if you can. If you have never had one, apply through the government service as soon as possible.3GOV.UK. Find or Check an Employee’s National Insurance Number Using Basic PAYE Tools

Choosing Your Employee Statement

This is the part most people get wrong, and it is the single biggest reason new starters end up overtaxed. There are three options, and each one tells your employer which tax code to apply on your first payday.2HM Revenue & Customs. Starter Checklist Tick one, and only one.

Statement A

Pick this if the new job is your first since 6 April and you have not received Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, or Incapacity Benefit during the current tax year. Your employer will apply the full personal allowance on a cumulative basis (tax code 1257L for 2026/27, reflecting the £12,570 allowance).4GOV.UK. Income Tax Personal Allowance and the Basic Rate Limit From 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2028 This is the most favourable option, because it spreads your full tax-free amount across the whole year.

Statement B

Pick this if you have had another job since 6 April but are no longer in it, or if you have received any of the taxable benefits listed above. Your employer will still use 1257L, but on a “week 1/month 1” (non-cumulative) basis. Each pay period is treated in isolation, so you get the right amount of tax-free pay per period but no automatic refund of overpayments from earlier in the year. HMRC reconciles the difference later.

Statement C

Pick this if you have another job running at the same time or you receive a state, workplace, or private pension. Your employer will use tax code BR, which taxes every pound from this job at the basic rate of 20 percent with no personal allowance applied.5Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. Starter Checklist The assumption is that your allowance is already being used against your other job or pension, so applying it again would leave you underpaid at year-end.

If You Leave It Blank

If you do not tick any statement or fail to hand in the checklist, your employer must use tax code 0T, which removes the personal allowance entirely.6GOV.UK. Tax Codes – What Your Tax Code Means For a basic-rate taxpayer, the effect is much like BR. For higher earners, 0T can push slices of income into the 40 percent or 45 percent bands. Either way, you lose money from every pay until HMRC issues a corrected code.

Student and Postgraduate Loan Questions

The checklist asks whether you have a student loan and, if so, which plan you are on. Your employer needs this to start deductions once your earnings cross the threshold.7GOV.UK. Tell HMRC About a New Employee – Student Loan Repayments If you are not sure which plan applies, check your loan paperwork or sign in to the Student Loans Company repayment portal.

For 2026/27, the annual repayment thresholds and rates are:8House of Commons Library. Student Loans – Interest Rates and Repayment Thresholds FAQs

You can have both a student loan and a postgraduate loan running at once, and both deductions will apply simultaneously. Ticking the wrong box does not create a permanent problem, but it can delay correct deductions and result in a larger adjustment later.

Handing It In and What Happens Next

Return the completed checklist to your employer before or on your first payday. They enter your details into their payroll software, assign you a payroll ID, and include the information in their first Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC. The FPS must be sent on or before your payday.10GOV.UK. Reporting to HMRC – FPS That submission is what formally tells HMRC you have started work. If the initial tax code does not fit your actual record, HMRC sends the employer a coding notice, and your deductions are adjusted from the following pay cycle.

If You End Up on an Emergency Tax Code

If your employer does not have enough information to assign the right code, you go on an emergency one. For 2026/27, emergency codes appear on your payslip as 1257L W1, 1257L M1, or 1257L X.11GOV.UK. Understanding Your Employees’ Tax Codes The W1 or M1 suffix means tax is calculated period by period without reference to what you earned or paid earlier in the year, and depending on your circumstances you can overpay noticeably.

Overpayments are not lost. Once HMRC updates your code, they check whether you have paid too much. If you are paid monthly, the corrected code should show up in your next pay or the one after; if you are weekly-paid, by the third pay after the correction.12GOV.UK. Tax Codes – If You’ve Paid Too Much or Too Little Tax Your employer then refunds the difference through your pay. If HMRC does not have your full income picture in time, reconciliation happens after the end of the tax year and HMRC writes to you about claiming the refund. The way to avoid all of this is to submit the checklist accurately and on time.