P60 Pay: In previous employment(s) — Pay from previous employer(s) this year
Your taxable pay from any earlier employer in the same tax year, as transferred to this employer via your P45 Parts 2 and 3.
At a glance
- Entry
- Pay from previous employer(s) this year
- Feeds to
- Already part of your year-to-date total — no separate Self Assessment entry.
- Check against
- Figure on Part 1A of your P45 from the previous employer, Box 8 "Total pay to date".
What this means
If you changed jobs during the tax year and gave your new employer your P45, the previous employer's year-to-date pay appears in this box on the P60. This lets HMRC and the new employer calculate your PAYE correctly against your full-year allowances and tax code.
If this box is blank, either you started the job at the beginning of the tax year, or you started later but never gave this employer a P45 (meaning you went on an emergency or BR tax code).
The figure should match Box 8 "Total pay to date" on the P45 Part 1A you kept for your records. If they disagree, there's a clerical error — contact payroll.
Implications for your tax
- Added to current-employment pay to produce your year-to-date total — this is what HMRC uses to reconcile tax for the year.
- Required for the tax code to work correctly mid-year — without it the new employer uses BR (20% flat) or emergency tax codes and you overpay PAYE.
- If missing, you may have overpaid tax and HMRC will usually issue a refund after the P800 end-of-year reconciliation (typically August–October following the tax year end).
Common pitfalls
- If this is wrong, your full-year tax calculation is also wrong — ask payroll for a corrected P60 rather than trying to fix it yourself.
- A P45 from a self-employed source (e.g. ending a PAYE contract and becoming sole trader) can sometimes confuse new employers; the figure should reflect only the PAYE-employment pay from the P45.
Related P60 entries
Pay: In this employment — Pay in this employment (current job)
Your total taxable pay in this employment for the tax year (6 April to 5 April). If you started this job mid-year, it covers only what this employer paid you.
Pay: Total for year — Total pay for the tax year
The sum of current and previous employment pay — the headline figure HMRC uses for your annual income tax calculation.
Tax deducted — Total income tax deducted in the year
Total income tax withheld from you via PAYE across this employer (and any previous employer in the same tax year).
Final tax code — Tax code at 5 April
The PAYE tax code that was applied to your pay as at the tax year end — e.g. 1257L, K475, BR, S1257L, D0, NT.
Reconciling your pay? Use the take-home pay calculator to verify PAYE and NI on any salary for 2025/26 or 2026/27, and the tax code checker to decode your final tax code.
Sources
P60 structure per HMRC PAYE forms guidance. Thresholds and rates current for 2025/26 (tax year 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026); 2026/27 figures included where published.