GOV.UK
1. Overview
Your employer or pension provider uses your tax code to work out how much tax to take from your pay or pension.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) works out your tax code and sends it to your employer or pension provider.
Usually a tax code is 3 numbers and a letter.
Most people born after 5 April 1948 with 1 job have 944L as their tax code for the 2013 to 2014 tax year.
If you’ve only got 1 employer or pension, you’ll have 1 tax code.
But if you get income from more than 1 employer or pension provider, each will usually use a different tax code. This is because HMRC will adjust your tax codes so you:
- get your tax-free Personal Allowance
- pay the right amount of tax for all of your income, spread over a year
Your tax code doesn’t tell employers or pension providers how much you earn - it only tells them how much tax they need to take from payments they make to you.
Where to find your tax code
You can get your tax code from:
- payslips from your employer or pension provider
- P45 from an employer if you leave a job
- P60 from your employer at the end of each tax year
- a PAYE Coding Notice - you may get one by post or you can check using HMRC’s Self Assessment online service if you’re registered