P45 Box Guide — Every Section Explained

Where Parts 1, 1A, 2 and 3 go

The P45 is a four-part form, and each part has exactly one destination. The most common mistake is handing over Part 1A (your permanent copy) — or losing Parts 2 and 3 before starting the new job.

Claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or ESA instead of starting a new job? Take Parts 2 and 3 to Jobcentre Plus — they refund any overpaid tax when your claim ends, or at 5 April if earlier. Full detail on the Parts 1, 1A, 2 and 3 page.

Box 7 vs Box 8 — total pay to date vs this employment

The two money sections of the P45 confuse more people than anything else on the form. On the official HMRC layout, Box 7 carries the last entries on the old employer's payroll record: total pay to date and total tax to date for the whole tax year, plus the week or month number of the final pay period. On a cumulative tax code these totals include pay and tax brought forward from any earlier job in the same tax year — so Box 7 can legitimately be higher than what this employer actually paid you.

Box 8 shows pay and tax in this employment only. It is left blank when the tax code is cumulative and the figures would simply repeat Box 7. The two boxes only diverge when year-to-date figures were brought in from a previous job — then Box 7 is the full-year running total and Box 8 isolates this employer's share.

One special case: if the tax code in Box 6 carries the Week 1/Month 1 marker, Box 7 is left empty entirely (there is no meaningful cumulative total) and only Box 8 is completed. See the year-to-date pay and tax page for how these figures flow into your new employer's payroll and your next P60.

Leaving date vs final pay date

Box 4 records your leaving date — your last day of employment, the date your old employer reports to HMRC on the Full Payment Submission. It is not necessarily the date of your final payment: accrued holiday pay, a final commission run or a leaving bonus often lands at the next scheduled payroll after your last day, and the P45 figures include everything processed up to the point the form was issued.

If your old employer pays you anything after the P45 has been issued — a late bonus, backdated pay award or missed overtime — they must not reopen the P45. HMRC requires that payment to be taxed on a 0T code on a Week 1/Month 1 basis (S0T for Scottish taxpayers, C0T for Welsh), which gives no personal allowance for that payment. Higher earners are often over-taxed on such payments; the balance comes back through the P800 year-end reconciliation or your Self Assessment return. Estimate what you are owed with the tax refund estimator.

Cumulative vs Week 1/Month 1 basis

A cumulative code recalculates your tax each payday against the whole year so far: year-to-date pay, minus the year-to-date slice of your allowance, gives year-to-date tax due — and the difference from what you have already paid is deducted (or refunded) that period. This is what makes PAYE self-correcting mid-year, and it is why the Box 7 year-to-date figures matter so much to your new employer.

A code marked W1 or M1 switches PAYE to non-cumulative: each week or month is taxed in isolation with one week's or one month's slice of allowance, ignoring history. It exists as a safety valve when the year-to-date picture is unreliable — a missing P45, a mid-year HMRC code change, or a payment after leaving. Nothing self-corrects on a W1/M1 basis, so any over- or under-payment sits unresolved until HMRC issues a cumulative code or runs the year-end reconciliation. If your P45 shows the marker, expect your first payslips at the new job to be approximate, and check the code with the tax code checker.

The student loan marker (Box 5)

Box 5 is a simple Y/blank indicator: Y means student loan deductions were in force when you left, and your new employer must continue them from your first payday. Undergraduate plans deduct 9% of pay above the plan threshold (Plan 1 £26,065, Plan 2 £28,470, Plan 4 (Scotland) £32,745, Plan 5 £25,000 for 2025/26); a postgraduate loan deducts 6% above £21,000, in parallel with any undergraduate plan.

The P45 does not say which plan you are on — only that deductions apply. Tell your new employer your plan type (or confirm it via the starter checklist) so they deduct above the right threshold. If Box 5 is blank but you are repaying, deductions silently stop until HMRC notifies the employer — an underpayment that catches up with you later. Details on the Box 5 student loan page, or model repayments with the student loan calculator.

Which tax code does the new employer use?

If your P45 is dated in the current tax year, the new employer takes the code straight from Box 6 — including any Week 1/Month 1 marker — and, when the code is cumulative, carries the Box 7 pay and tax totals into their payroll so your first payday continues seamlessly from the old job. If HMRC has already sent them a code for you (a P6 notice), the HMRC code beats the P45.

If your P45 is dated in the previous tax year and you start after 6 April, the year-to-date figures belong to a closed year and must not be carried over. HMRC's new-starter rules point the employer at the starter checklist instead: with no other job you will normally declare statement B and start on 1257L Week 1/Month 1 until HMRC confirms a cumulative code. Decode any code you are given with the tax code checker and preview the payslip impact with the take-home pay calculator.

No P45? The starter checklist

Lost your P45, first job, or the old employer is dragging their feet? Your new employer asks you to complete the HMRC starter checklist (which replaced the old P46). Your declaration determines your starting tax code:

The checklist also captures your student loan plan and postgraduate loan status, which the P45 cannot. Ticking the wrong statement is the single most common cause of new-starter emergency tax — see the full walkthrough in Starting a New Job in the UK.