Every employee in the country receives one at the end of the tax year, but most people file it away without a second look – until the day they need it and can’t find it.
Your P60 is more important than it seems. It’s an official record of everything you earned and everything that was deducted from your pay during the tax year. If you ever need to prove your income, complete a tax return, apply for a mortgage, or claim benefits, it’s one of the first documents you’ll be asked for.
Whether you’re an employee wanting to understand what your P60 actually tells you, or an employer making sure you’re meeting your obligations, here’s everything you need to know.
What Is a P60?
A P60 – officially called an “End of Year Certificate” – is a summary of your total pay and deductions for the tax year. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year.
Your employer is legally required to provide you with a P60 if you were on their payroll on 5 April. It shows your total earnings, the income tax deducted, your National Insurance contributions, and your tax code. If you have a student loan being repaid through your wages, that will appear too.
It’s worth noting that a P60 only covers pay from one employer. If you had two jobs during the tax year, you’ll receive a P60 from each employer you were still working for on 5 April. If you left a job partway through the year, you won’t get a P60 from that employer – you should have received a P45 when you left instead.
What Information Does a P60 Include?
A P60 contains a specific set of information. Here’s what you’ll find on it:
- Your name, National Insurance number, and employer’s PAYE reference
- Your tax code for the year
- Total pay for the year (before deductions)
- Total income tax deducted
- Total National Insurance contributions (employee’s share)
- Student loan deductions (if applicable)
- Statutory payments received (such as statutory sick pay or statutory maternity pay)
If your employer is payrolling benefits in kind – which is becoming more common and will be mandatory for most benefits from April 2027 – those payrolled benefit values will have been included in the tax calculation throughout the year. However, HMRC has confirmed there are no plans to add a separate line on the P60 for payrolled benefits. Employers are instead required to give you a separate benefits statement by 1 June after the tax year end.
When Should You Receive Your P60?
Your employer must provide your P60 by 31 May following the end of the tax year. So for the 2025/26 tax year (ending 5 April 2026), your P60 should reach you by 31 May 2026 at the latest.
P60s can be issued on paper or electronically. If your employer uses an online portal or payroll system where you can download your P60, that counts as electronic delivery – provided you’ve agreed to receive it that way. Your employer can’t simply switch to electronic P60s without your consent.
If 31 May comes and goes and you still haven’t received yours, contact your employer’s payroll or HR department. They’re legally obliged to provide it.
Why Your P60 Matters
A P60 might look like just another piece of payroll admin, but it serves several practical purposes that can affect your finances directly.
Completing a Self Assessment Tax Return
If you need to file a Self Assessment return – perhaps because you’re a company director, a higher earner, or you have income from other sources – your P60 is the starting point.
It gives you the exact figures for your employment income and tax paid, which you’ll need to transfer onto your return. HMRC may have these on record when you go to do your return, but not always.
Applying for a Mortgage or Loan
Lenders may use P60s to verify your income. When you apply for a mortgage, the provider will typically ask for your most recent P60 (sometimes the last two or three) alongside payslips and bank statements. It’s one of the most reliable ways for a lender to confirm your annual earnings and assess affordability.
Claiming Tax Refunds
If you’ve overpaid tax during the year – perhaps because of an incorrect tax code, or because you started a new job partway through the year and were placed on emergency tax – your P60 provides the evidence you need to claim a refund from HMRC.
Benefits and Tax Credits
Certain benefits and tax credits require proof of income. Your P60 provides that in a clean, HMRC-recognised format.
Checking Your Tax Code
Your P60 shows the tax code that was applied to your earnings. If the code was wrong, you may have paid too much or too little tax. Comparing your P60 against HMRC’s records (which you can check through your personal tax account) is a good habit to get into each year.
How Long Should You Keep Your P60?
HMRC recommends keeping your P60 for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year it relates to. For the 2025/26 tax year, that means holding onto it until at least 31 January 2028.
In practice, keeping it for longer is sensible. Mortgage lenders may ask for P60s going back two or three years, and if HMRC opens an enquiry into your tax affairs, you’ll want the documentation to hand. Many people keep P60s for at least six years as a general rule.
Digital copies are perfectly acceptable. If your employer provides an electronic P60, save it somewhere secure. If you receive a paper copy, consider scanning it – paper fades and gets lost far more easily than a file on your computer or in the cloud.
What If You Lose Your P60?
If you’ve lost your P60, your employer can provide a replacement. They don’t have to issue an exact duplicate of the original form – a written statement containing the same information is acceptable.
If your employer no longer exists (or you’ve lost contact), you can access the same information through your personal tax account on GOV.UK. HMRC holds records of the pay and tax details reported by your employer through Real Time Information submissions, so the figures should be available there.
For Employers: Your Obligations
If you run a business with employees, issuing P60s is a legal requirement under the PAYE regulations. Here’s what you need to know:
- You must issue a P60 to every employee who was on your payroll on 5 April – including directors who draw a salary
- The deadline is 31 May after the end of the tax year
- P60s can be issued on paper (using approved stationery or payroll software) or electronically with the employee’s agreement
- You do not need to issue a P60 to anyone who left before 5 April – they should have received a P45
Most payroll software generates P60s automatically once you’ve completed your year-end processing. The key is making sure your year-end submissions to HMRC are accurate and filed on time – your final Full Payment Submission (FPS) for the tax year should be submitted by 19 April.
Failure to issue P60s can result in penalties from HMRC. Beyond the compliance risk, it also creates problems for your employees, who may need the document for their own tax affairs, mortgage applications, or benefit claims.
P60 vs P45 vs P11D: What’s the Difference?
These three forms come up a lot in payroll conversations, and it’s easy to mix them up. In short:
- P60: issued at the end of the tax year to employees still on the payroll. Summarises total pay and deductions for the year.
- P45: issued when an employee leaves. Shows pay and tax for the period they worked for you during that tax year.
- P11D: reports taxable benefits and expenses provided to employees (company cars, medical insurance, etc.). Filed with HMRC by 6 July. From April 2027, most benefits will be reported through payroll instead, reducing the need for P11Ds.
Each serves a different purpose, and each has its own deadline. Missing any of them can result in penalties.
Looking Ahead: Payrolling Benefits and the Future of the P60
From April 2027, most benefits in kind will be reported through payroll in real time rather than on annual P11D forms. This is a major change in how employee benefits are taxed, but it doesn’t directly change the P60 itself.
HMRC has confirmed that P60s will not include a separate line for payrolled benefits. Instead, employers must provide a separate annual statement by 1 June showing the benefits that were payrolled and their values. The P60 will continue to show total taxable pay and tax deducted – the payrolled benefit values will already be built into those totals.
For employees, this means checking your P60 alongside your benefits statement will become more important in future years, particularly if you need to verify that the right amount of tax has been collected on your benefits.
How Double Point Can Help
Whether you’re an employer looking for help with payroll processing and year-end compliance, or an employee who needs support with a Self Assessment return, our team is here to help.
At Double Point, we handle payroll for businesses of all sizes – including year-end submissions, P60 generation, and the transition to mandatory payrolling of benefits. If you’ve spotted an error on your P60, need help claiming a tax refund, or just want to make sure your tax affairs are in order, we can sort it out.
Book a free consultation with us today and let’s make sure everything is as it should be.