Guidance

P9X — Tax codes to use from 6 April 2026

Updated 19 February 2026

For 2026 to 2027 the basic Personal Allowance will be £12,570 for the whole of the UK. The threshold (starting point) for PAYE is £242 per week (£1,048 per month).

The emergency code is 1257L for all employees.

This guidance tells you what you have to do to get ready and when to make the change to tax codes.

Get ready for the new tax year starting on 6 April

For each employee who will be working for you on 6 April you’ll need to:

• prepare a payroll record
• identify the correct tax code (including the correct prefix, for example, ‘S’ or ‘C’)
• enter the correct tax code on the payroll record

When we send a new tax code for any of your employees, you’ll receive one of the following:

• a paper form P9(T), ‘Notice to employer of employee’s tax code’
• an internet notification of coding if you’re registered to use our PAYE Online — internet service

To access your online coding notices:

• go to PAYE Online for employers and select ‘Sign in’
• from the Business tax account home page, select ‘Messages’ and then select ‘PAYE for employers messages’
• select ‘View your Tax Code Notices’
• from the ‘Tax Year’ drop down box select the new tax year (2026 to 2027)

Please keep this P9X with any new tax codes until you’re ready to set up your 2026 to 2027 payroll. We will not send a new tax code for every employee.

What you need to do before 6 April 2026

Employees without a new tax code

Copy the authorised tax code from the 2025 to 2026 payroll record and continue to use for 2026 to 2027.

Do not copy or carry over any ‘week 1’ or ‘month 1’ markings.

The payroll records for these employees are now ready for the new tax year.

Employees with a new tax code

Keep and use the form P9(T) or other tax code notification with the most recent date on for each employee:

• scrap any form P9(T) or other tax code notification for the same employee with an earlier date
• copy the tax code from the form P9(T) or other tax code notification onto your payroll record
• update any tax codes where you’ve received form P9(T) or other tax code notification after you’ve set up your payroll records

The payroll records for these employees are now ready for the new tax year.

Employees leaving

You do not need to change the tax code for any employee who leaves before 6 April, even if you’ll be paying them after 6 April. Just use the old tax code.

This does not apply to payments after leaving when you’ve already given an employee a P45. In these circumstances tax must be deducted using tax code 0T, S0T for employees who had an S prefix in their code, or C0T for employees who had a C prefix in their code, on a non-cumulative basis.

New employees

If an employee starts between 6 April and 24 May and gives you a P45, follow the instructions at Tell HMRC about a new employee

If you’re an employer who has an agreed exemption from online filing and are operating a manual payroll, follow the instructions in the RT7, ‘Guidance for employers exempt from filing Real Time Information online’.

Manual Payroll

If you have an agreed exemption from online filing and will be operating a manual payroll, continue to use Taxable Pay Tables Manual Method (April 2026). Continue to use Tax Tables A (1993) which have not been changed.

Basic PAYE Tools

If you use HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tools (BPT) to calculate payroll deductions and submit payroll information online, you’ll be able to action this P9X once the new tax year is available in BPT.

More help

Further guidance can be found online, go to Understanding your employees’ tax codes.