To get a P45, ask the employer you’re leaving: they’re required to issue one when your employment ends, usually once they’ve run your final payroll. If it doesn’t arrive, chase them in writing, then contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300 so your tax code can be corrected directly. If you’ve lost the P45 you were given, no one can reissue it, but a Starter Checklist from GOV.UK will let your new employer put you on payroll without it.
When Your Employer Has to Give You One
Your employer must issue a P45 whenever your employment ends, whether you resigned, were dismissed, were made redundant, or retired.1GOV.UK. Your P45, P60 and P11D Form HMRC’s employer guide says the form should be given to you “when they stop working for you,” meaning on or shortly after your last working day.2GOV.UK. 2026 to 2027 Employer Further Guide to PAYE and National Insurance Contributions In practice, most employers wait until the final payroll run, so a week or two is normal. Longer than that is a problem worth chasing.
Agency workers are on a slightly different clock. The agency should issue your P45 at the earlier of two events: the end of the working relationship with the agency, or three months during which the agency has paid you nothing.2GOV.UK. 2026 to 2027 Employer Further Guide to PAYE and National Insurance Contributions
If Your Employer Hasn’t Sent It
Contact your former employer first. Email or write rather than call, so you have a record. Confirm your leaving date, your current address, and ask when the P45 will be issued. HR or payroll will usually be the right contact.
If that doesn’t work, go to HMRC. Call the Income Tax helpline on 0300 200 3300 or use the digital assistant through your personal tax account.3GOV.UK. Income Tax Enquiries Before you get in touch, have these to hand:
- Your National Insurance number
- Your former employer’s name and PAYE reference number, which usually appears on an old payslip
- Your employment start and end dates
HMRC can update your tax record and send the right tax code to your new employer without the physical P45 ever reaching you.4GOV.UK. Tell HMRC About a New Employee – Late P45 Employers report pay and tax every time they run payroll under Real Time Information, so HMRC often already holds the figures a P45 would show.
If the Employer Has Gone Out of Business
When a company has entered administration or stopped trading, a P45 may simply never arrive. Contact HMRC directly with whatever you have, especially payslips, which show your tax code, pay, and deductions. HMRC can reconstruct your position from the Real Time Information submitted while you were still being paid.
If You’ve Lost Your P45
Employers cannot issue a duplicate P45 once the original has been produced. It’s a one-time document, so a lost or damaged copy can’t be reprinted.
Fill in a Starter Checklist on GOV.UK and give it to your new employer. It collects what they need to put you on payroll and work out an initial tax code.5GOV.UK. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job You’ll need to know:
- Whether you’ve had another job or pension since 6 April, the start of the current tax year
- Your National Insurance number
- Your new job’s start date
- Your student or postgraduate loan plan, if you have one
- Whether you’ve received Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, or Universal Credit since 6 April
Your new employer uses the checklist to add you to payroll, submit your details to HMRC, and apply a tax code until HMRC sends a more accurate one. It won’t carry your exact year-to-date pay and tax figures the way a P45 does, so expect a correction once HMRC catches up.5GOV.UK. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job
What a Missing P45 Costs You: Emergency Tax
Without a P45 at your first payday, your new employer will usually apply the emergency tax code. For the 2026-27 tax year that code is 1257L.6GOV.UK. P9X Tax Codes to Use From 6 April 2026 You still get the standard Personal Allowance, but it’s often applied on a Week 1 or Month 1 basis, meaning tax is calculated only on that period’s pay rather than spread across the year. If you’ve started partway through the tax year, that usually means too much tax deducted.
The overpayment isn’t permanent. Once HMRC has the right information and sends your new employer a proper tax code, deductions correct themselves and any overpaid tax comes back through later pay packets. The correction can take weeks, though, so chasing the P45 or filing a Starter Checklist straight away is what keeps the hit short.
Checking What HMRC Already Knows
You can check your current tax position through your personal tax account on GOV.UK or in the HMRC app. It shows your current tax code, estimated income from each job and pension, and lets you update employer details if something looks wrong.7GOV.UK. Check Your Income Tax for the Current Year
This is worth doing early. If your former employer submitted their Real Time Information correctly, HMRC’s record of your leaving may already be in place before the paper P45 reaches you, and you can prompt a tax code update without waiting for the form.
Using the P45 Once You Have It
Hand Parts 2 and 3 to your new employer on or before your first day. They’ll record the details, report your start through their first Full Payment Submission, and use the tax code from the P45 to deduct the right tax from your very first pay packet.8HM Revenue & Customs. P45 Manual Keep Part 1A for yourself; you may need it later for Self Assessment or a tax refund claim.
If you’re not going straight into another job, the P45 still has uses. When claiming New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance, HMRC guidance says to bring your P45 to your interview, where it can also serve as proof of identity.9GOV.UK. New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance And if you’ve stopped working partway through the tax year without a new job lined up, you may have overpaid tax, because PAYE spreads your Personal Allowance across the full year as if you’d earn for all of it. The pay and tax totals on your P45 are the starting point for claiming that money back through HMRC or your personal tax account, without needing a Self Assessment return.