The P38 tax form, properly the P38(S), was withdrawn by HMRC on 6 April 2013. If you’re looking for it because you’ve taken a holiday job or a first job and want to be paid without income tax coming off your wages, the document you actually need is the Starter Checklist. Every new employee without a P45 fills one in, and your answers on it decide the tax code your employer uses.
What the P38(S) Was and Why It’s Gone
Before April 2013, a student working only during academic holidays could hand their employer a P38(S). It was a declaration that total earnings for the year would stay under the Personal Allowance, so no income tax was owed. The employer kept the form on file and paid wages in full with no deductions.
HMRC scrapped it when Real Time Information (RTI) reporting came in. Under RTI, employers report every payment to HMRC electronically as it happens, so a separate paper exemption for students is no longer needed. Since 6 April 2013, students are processed through PAYE exactly like any other employee, regardless of whether the work is term-time or holiday.1HM Revenue & Customs. PAYE Manual – Employer Returns: Employer Return Post Capture: Form P38(S)
The Starter Checklist Is What Replaced It
The Starter Checklist is the form every new employee completes when they don’t have a P45 from a previous job. It applies to everyone, not just students, and it does the job the P38(S) used to do: it gives your employer enough information to set your tax code correctly from the first payday.
The checklist asks for basic personal details — name, address, date of birth, and your National Insurance number if you have one.2GOV.UK. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job It does not ask for university term dates or proof of enrolment. Those requirements died with the P38(S). There’s also a short section on student loans, asking whether you’re still on the course your loan relates to or have recently finished.3HM Revenue and Customs. Starter Checklist
Choosing Statement A, B, or C
The most important part of the checklist is picking one of three statements. This single choice controls your tax code, so getting it wrong costs real money.
Statement A applies if this is your first job since the previous 6 April and you haven’t received Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, or Incapacity Benefit since then. It gives you the full Personal Allowance from the start of the tax year, so you pay no income tax until your earnings exceed £12,570 for the year.3HM Revenue and Customs. Starter Checklist
Statement B applies if you’ve had another job since 6 April but don’t have a P45, or you’ve received one of the benefits above. Your employer applies the Personal Allowance on a week 1 or month 1 basis, so each pay period is treated on its own rather than cumulatively. You’ll get the right tax-free amount each week, but any overpayment from earlier in the year won’t correct itself until HMRC reconciles your account.
Statement C applies if you have another job or receive a state, workplace, or private pension. It triggers the BR tax code, taxing all earnings from this job at the basic rate of 20% because your Personal Allowance is already being used against your other income.4GOV.UK. Tax Codes – What Your Tax Code Means
Most students taking a summer or holiday job with no other employment choose Statement A. That’s the closest thing to what the old P38(S) achieved: full Personal Allowance applied, and if your total earnings for the year stay under £12,570, no income tax at all.5UK Parliament. Direct Taxes: Rates and Allowances for 2026/27
How to Submit It
Email it, post it, or hand it to your new employer.2GOV.UK. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job Don’t send it to HMRC. Your employer uses your answers to set up your tax code in their payroll software, and HMRC picks the information up automatically through RTI when you’re first paid.
Get it in before your first payday. If your employer runs payroll without your details, they have to use an emergency tax code and a chunk of your wages will be withheld unnecessarily. Even one late pay cycle can mean weeks of waiting for HMRC to sort things out.
What Happens Without One
With no Starter Checklist and no P45, your employer has to use an emergency code. The two common ones are 0T and BR.4GOV.UK. Tax Codes – What Your Tax Code Means BR taxes everything at 20%. 0T is often worse: it removes your Personal Allowance entirely, so your pay is taxed from the first pound at progressive rates, which can mean 40% on a portion of higher earnings.
Emergency tax is meant to be temporary. Your employer can correct it as soon as you provide the checklist, and HMRC updates your code once the RTI data flows through. But temporary stretches to months if you don’t act, and the overpaid tax won’t come back until HMRC reconciles your account or you claim it.6GOV.UK. Emergency Tax Codes
Getting Overpaid Tax Back
Two routes, depending on your situation.
After the Tax Year Ends
Once the tax year closes on 5 April, HMRC reviews the PAYE data reported by employers and sends a P800 tax calculation or a Simple Assessment letter if you’ve overpaid. These go out between June and the following March. The letter explains how much you’re owed and how to claim, usually through HMRC’s online service.7GOV.UK. Tax Overpayments and Underpayments If nothing arrives and you think you’ve overpaid, you can use HMRC’s online tax checker or contact them directly.8GOV.UK. Student Jobs: Paying Tax
Mid-Year Using Form P50
If you stop working partway through the tax year and return to full-time study, you don’t have to wait. Form P50 lets you claim a refund if you’ve been unemployed for at least four weeks, aren’t claiming taxable state benefits, aren’t registered with an employment agency, and don’t expect to work again before the tax year ends. The quickest way is HMRC’s online service, and HMRC aims to respond within 14 days.9GOV.UK. Claim Back Income Tax When You’ve Stopped Working (P50)
If You Pick the Wrong Statement
Choosing the wrong statement isn’t just admin. Select Statement A when you already have another job using your Personal Allowance and you’ll have two employers each giving you the tax-free amount. You’ll underpay income tax for the year, HMRC will catch it at reconciliation, and you’ll get a bill for the shortfall plus interest at 7.75% on any late balance.10GOV.UK. HMRC Interest Rates for Late and Early Payments
A genuine mistake usually means just the interest. If HMRC decides you chose the wrong statement deliberately to reduce your tax, penalties range from 20% to 100% of the underpaid amount depending on whether the error was deliberate and whether you disclosed it voluntarily. For most students the realistic risk is a careless error rather than a deliberate one, but the unexpected bill months later still stings when you’re no longer earning. Getting the statement right on day one avoids all of it.