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Payslips

Each payday, your employer should give you a payslip. It's a receipt for the tax you've paid, showing details like:

• Income Tax - the basics

Your National Insurance number

You will need to tell your employer your National Insurance number to make sure the Income Tax and National Insurance contributions you pay are properly recorded. You will find your National Insurance number on the National Insurance number card or notification letter you received from HMRC when you reached 16.

HMRC no longer issues National Insurance number cards.

• National Insurance - the basics

PAYE Coding Notice

When you start work, HMRC will send you a tax code on a PAYE Coding Notice. They also send a copy of the Coding Notice to your employer, who'll use it to work out how much tax to deduct from your pay.

• Tax codes - the basics

• Understanding your PAYE Coding Notice

Emergency tax codes

Your employer may use an 'emergency tax code' until HMRC issues the right one. If you've paid too much tax you'll get it back through PAYE.

If you leave your job before you get the right code, or you want to claim tax back for a previous tax year, you can apply to HMRC for a refund.

• Tax refunds and reclaiming overpaid tax Opens new window

• Emergency tax codes

PAYE forms P45, P46 and P60

P45

The form P45 is a record of your pay and tax deductions. You'll get it from your employer when you stop working for them. It shows details like:

A P45 has four parts. Your employer sends one part to HMRC and gives you the other three. When you start a new job, you give two parts to your new employer and keep the other one called Part 1A for your own records.

P46

If you're starting your first job and don't have a P45, your employer will give you a form P46 to fill in and sign. HMRC will then process your P46 and issue your tax code.

It’s important you complete your P46 before your first pay day. If you don’t, you could end up paying the wrong amount of tax.

P60

Form P60 is an annual summary of all your payslips. Your employer gives you one at the end of every tax year, if you still work for the employer. You keep your P60 as a record of your pay and the tax that was deducted.

• Find out more about PAYE forms - P45, P46, P60

Student loan repayments

If you've got a student loan to repay, it'll happen automatically through PAYE once you start working and earning more than the repayment threshold.

HMRC gives your employer the information they need to deduct the right amount from your wages. Your payslip must show how much has been deducted. If you have any queries about your student loan repayments you can contact HMRC.

• Contact HMRC Opens new window

Keeping records

What records to keep

Keep the paperwork that contains details about your pay and tax, like:

If anyone (other than your employer) gives you benefits in kind for doing your job, you should keep a note of their name and address and what they gave you.

Why keep records?

You'll need to refer to your records later if you ever need to:

How long to keep them

HMRC suggests you keep your records for at least 22 months from the end of the tax year they relate to. The tax year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April, so keep paperwork until at least 31 January nearly two years later.

More useful links

• General advice on looking for work and at work (employment section)

• Finding work, job schemes and disabled employee rights (disabled people section)

• Self Assessment - your tax return

• Tax when starting, leaving or retiring from work

• Applying for a National Insurance number

• Employee tax and National Insurance

• Tax and National Insurance when employing people in your home

Useful contacts

• Money, tax and benefits contacts