P60 Explained, What It Shows and How to Check It

What a P60 is and when you get one

Your employer must give you a P60 by 31 May each year. It is a summary of your total pay and deductions for the tax year that just ended on 5 April. If you have more than one job, you should get a P60 from each employer. The document is used by HMRC, mortgage lenders, benefits assessors, and yourself when completing a Self Assessment tax return.

The P60 is not a receipt for a refund or a bill for more tax, it is purely a summary. HMRC reconciles PAYE automatically and will send a P800 if they calculate that you overpaid or underpaid. If you receive a P800 notice, check the P60 figures match what HMRC has on record before taking any action.

Since around 2020, many employers issue digital P60s through payroll portals. These carry the same legal weight as paper copies. If you cannot find yours, check your payroll portal first, then contact your HR or payroll department. HMRC also holds income and tax information in your Personal Tax Account, though the granularity is less than a full P60.

• Issued by 31 May each year for the tax year just ended.
• Covers 6 April to 5 April, a full UK tax year.
• One P60 per employer; check all if you held multiple jobs.
• Available digitally through most modern payroll portals.

Reading the P60: what each figure means

The key figures are total pay, total tax deducted, and National Insurance contributions. 'Total pay' is your gross earnings in the tax year, salary, bonuses, taxable benefits, and any other employment income processed through payroll. 'Total tax' is the income tax your employer deducted under PAYE across all pay periods. This should match what you would expect based on your gross pay and tax code.

Employee NI contributions appear separately. You will see the letter of your NI category alongside the amount paid. The figure is the total employee NI deducted in the year, it does not affect whether your National Insurance record is complete, but if you made no contributions despite earning above the primary threshold, something may need checking.

The 'tax code in use at 5 April' line tells you the final code your employer applied. If this does not match what you expected (for example, you should have had 1257L but the P60 shows a lower number or a K code), it is worth investigating with HMRC, as an incorrect year-end code can mean you were over or under-taxed throughout the year.

• Total pay: your full gross employment income for the year.
• Total tax: income tax deducted by your employer under PAYE.
• NI contributions: employee NI paid, split by category where relevant.
• Tax code at 5 April: the final code used, compare with what you expected.

How to check if your P60 looks right

The simplest check is to enter your P60 gross total into a take-home pay calculator and compare the estimated income tax against the figure on your P60. Allow for rounding and for any period during the year where your tax code was different. If the numbers match within a small margin, the P60 is almost certainly correct.

A common mismatch occurs when someone changed job mid-year without a P45, spent time on emergency tax, or had a tax code adjustment that did not filter through cleanly. In these cases the end-of-year reconciliation through PAYE should have sorted most of it, but a discrepancy of more than £50–100 is worth querying with HMRC.

Mortgage applications almost always ask for the last two or three P60s as income evidence. Make sure you retain copies for at least four years, the same period HMRC can go back for self-assessment purposes. A missing P60 is not catastrophic since HMRC holds a copy, but retrieving one from a previous employer you no longer work for can be slow.

• Cross-check P60 tax against a calculator using the same gross pay.
• Mid-year job changes and emergency tax can cause legitimate discrepancies.
• Differences over £100 are worth querying with HMRC.
• Keep P60s for at least 4 years, needed for mortgage applications.