Briefly if you:
- have had a previous job where you paid tax or National Insurance was deducted from your pay, a form P45 should have been given to you when you left that job. Keep Part 1A of the form and hand Parts 2 and 3 to your new employer
- do not have a form P45 to give to your new employer they will ask you to complete a form P46 (or ask you for the information required by that form)
- receive a form P45 from your previous employer after you have started your new job, you should still give Parts 2 and 3 to your new employer (even if you completed a P46). Your new employer will use the tax code shown on the P45 to tax your pay, unless HMRC has already told them of a different tax code to use. If so, HMRC should also have sent you a coding notice, form P2.
The P46
As employers can submit form P46 to HMRC electronically, you might not be asked to complete the pre-printed form. But you still have to give your new employer the same information and they must keep a record of the facts and how they got them. So it is worth looking at the form to see what information is required.
Why is the P46 important?
When you fill in the P46, your employer uses your answers on the form to give you a tax code. This might be temporary, for example, an ‘emergency tax code', to be usedwhile waiting to see if HMRC recalculate it.
Check your tax code
It is always important that you check your tax code and, if you are at all uncertain about how you are being taxed, take action by contacting HMRC. This will help prevent you owing HMRC tax or having to claim tax back.
Are you claiming carer’s allowance or widowed parents allowance?
Carer’s allowance is taxable but most people claiming it do not have enough income to pay tax. But claimants are allowed to do some work and when their wages are added to their carer’s allowance, the total might be more than their tax-free allowances.
If this applies to you, contact HMRC as soon as possible after you start work to make sure your carer’s allowance is included in your tax code. If you do not contact them, it might be missed because carer’s allowance is not covered on the P46. You might then be asked to pay back the tax at the end of the year.
Also, widowed parents allowance is taxable, but as with carer’s allowance, the P46 does not ask whether you are claiming it. So again, claimants must contact HMRC as soon as possible after starting work to make sure your widowed parents allowance is included in your tax code.
Help with filling in the P46
Here we attach an annotated P46, to help you with some of the less straight forward parts of the form.
Although the form has two pages, we have only guided you through page 1 because page 2 is for your employer to complete.
Obtaining a P46
Your employer should give you the P46 to complete or ask you for the same information. But, if required, you can download the full form from the HMRC website.
