Guidance

Get your Income Tax right if you're leaving the UK (P85)

Tell HMRC if you've left or intend to leave the UK and find out how to get relief or a repayment on UK Income Tax (P85).

You can claim online or use form P85 to tell HMRC that you’ve left or are leaving the UK and want to claim back tax from your UK employment.

You can claim if you:

  • lived and worked in the UK
  • left the UK and may not be coming back
  • work abroad full time for at least 1 full tax year

You do not need to fill in this form if you are sending a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year that you leave the UK.

Before you start

Check your P45 for ‘details of employee leaving work’ — you’ll need this when you claim.

Tell us if you:

  • have a home in the UK
  • work full time outside of the UK
  • have salary still paid in the UK
  • will spend time in the UK over the next 3 years

Claim online

To use the online service, you need a Government Gateway user ID and password. If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you use the service.

If you have not left the UK yet, you must print and post your claim.

Claim online

You’ll get a reference number that you can use to track the progress of your claim.

If you need to print and post your claim

If you do not wish to use the online service or you need to print and post your claim on the P85 form, you can:

  1. Start your claim online.

  2. Print it.

  3. Sign the declaration.

  4. Include your P45 if you have it — if not tell us why. For example, you may be retired, or a UK crown servant employed abroad.

  5. Post it to HMRC.

Send the form to:

Pay As You Earn
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AS

What happens next

If you’re due a repayment, we’ll:

  1. Pay you or someone else on your behalf.

  2. Post a payable order to your address or to your nominee’s address — to be paid into a bank account held in your or your nominee’s name.

You can check when you can expect a reply from HMRC.

HMRC will not pay any fees to convert your repayment into another currency, or to transfer it abroad. You may want to keep your UK bank account open until you receive the repayment to avoid any fees.

Published 9 August 2023
Last updated 9 February 2024 + show all updates
  1. If you have not left the UK yet, you must print and post your claim.

  2. The guidance has been amended to include information about keeping your UK bank account open until you receive the repayment.

  3. The planned downtime for the the print and post online service that started at 2pm on Friday 6 October 2023 will now end at 3pm on Friday 13 October 2023. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

  4. Due to planned downtime, the print and post online service will be unavailable from 2pm on Friday 6 October 2023 to 10am on Tuesday 10 October 2023.

  5. Added translation