A P60 is the official end-of-year certificate that every UK employer operating PAYE must issue to each employee who is on the payroll on 5 April. It summarises the employee’s total pay, Income Tax deducted, and National Insurance contributions for the complete tax year (6 April to 5 April). Employers are legally required to provide it no later than 31 May following the end of the relevant tax year.
This article explains exactly what the P60 is, who receives one, what it must contain under HMRC’s requirements, how employees rely on it for Self-Assessment and mortgage applications, and what the consequences are when an employer fails to issue one on time.
What Is a P60? The Legal Definition Under PAYE
A P60, formally known as the End of Year Certificate, is a statutory document issued by employers under the UK’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. It provides a complete record of the earnings and deductions processed by one employer for the full tax year, running from 6 April to 5 April.
The obligation to issue a P60 arises from Regulation 67 of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2682). The P60 is not submitted to HMRC; it is issued directly to the employee. HMRC already holds the underlying data through the Real Time Information (RTI) Full Payment Submissions (FPS) made throughout the year. The P60 is therefore the mechanism by which the employer confirms that cumulative picture to the employee in a single, portable document.
Who Receives a P60?
The 5 April payroll test
The eligibility rule has two parts, both of which must be met. A P60 is issued to every employee who is on the employer’s payroll on 5 April and who, during that tax year, has either earned at or above the National Insurance Lower Earnings Limit (LEL), or has had Income Tax and/or National Insurance contributions deducted from their pay. An employee who was on the payroll on 5 April but earned below the LEL and had no deductions made would not ordinarily receive a P60.
Subject to that threshold, a P60 is still issued regardless of whether the employee:
- works full-time or part-time
- is on sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, or any form of unpaid leave on that date
- worked for the employer only briefly during the year
The test is purely whether the employment still existed on 5 April and whether the earnings or deductions threshold was met. If the employee left before 5 April, the employer issues a P45 when employment ceases, and no P60 follows for that tax year.
Multiple employments and changed jobs
An employee who holds two or more jobs simultaneously receives a separate P60 from each employer. Where an employee changed jobs during the tax year but was employed by their current employer on 5 April, the P60 from the current employer will include a section showing pay and tax from the previous employment, which will have been provided via a P45 when the employee joined the current employer.
Workers excluded from the P60 obligation
Self-employed individuals, contractors engaged through their own limited company, and genuinely self-employed sole traders do not receive a P60 because they are not employed. For the self-employed, the equivalent income confirmation is the SA302 (tax calculation), which is produced following submission of a Self Assessment return. Agency workers and those engaged through umbrella companies receive a P60 from their umbrella or agency employer, not from the end-client.
What Information Must a P60 Contain?
The P60 must carry the following information, as specified by HMRC’s published form design and the RD1 substitute form specification:
Paper or electronic?
HMRC permits employers to issue P60S on paper or electronically (for example, through a secure payroll self-service portal or as a PDF sent by email). Electronic P60S must contain the same information as paper versions and be accessible to the employee. Issuing an electronic P60 to a work email account that an employee on long-term leave cannot access does not discharge the obligation. Where an employee specifically requests a paper copy, it is good practice to provide one, though there is no explicit statutory requirement to do so in every case.
How Employees Use the P60
Self-Assessment tax returns
Where HMRC requires an individual to complete a Self Assessment tax return (because they are self-employed, receive income from UK property, earn above £100,000, or have other untaxed income), the P60 provides the employment income figures that must be declared on the return. Without the P60, an employee must reconstruct those figures from payslips, which is slower and error-prone, creating a risk of inaccuracy. Employees are required by law to keep a record of their taxable income for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year.
Employees should not rely solely on the P60 for Self Assessment if there is any reason to believe it may be inaccurate, for example, if a mid-year employer error was never corrected.
Mortgage and loan applications
Mortgage lenders treat the P60 as primary evidence of employment income when assessing affordability. Most lenders ask for P60S covering the most recent two or three tax years to confirm income stability. A P60 is more persuasive than a collection of payslips because it provides a single, employer-certified annual figure rather than a series of monthly snapshots. For borrowers with variable pay (including overtime, commissions, or performance bonuses), lenders typically average those components across the provided P60S. Applicants with two jobs will need to provide P60s from each employer.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Tax refund claims
Where an employee has overpaid Income Tax (for example, because they spent part of the year on an emergency code, or because their income was lower than anticipated), the P60 is the starting point for a refund claim. HMRC uses the figures from the P60 to calculate whether a repayment is due.
Other income verification purposes
Beyond tax and mortgages, employees are often asked to produce a P60 when applying for means-tested benefits, when renewing certain visas, when making rental applications (where a letting agent or landlord requires proof of income), and for pension verification. The document carries weight because it is an employer-certified, HMRC-aligned record rather than a self-generated income summary.
What Happens If an Employer Fails to Issue a P60?
The employee's immediate steps
Where an employee has not received their P60 within the required timeframe, the first step is to contact the employer’s payroll or HR department. Payroll errors and administrative backlogs are the most common causes of late issuance, and most employers resolve the matter quickly once alerted. If the employer fails to respond or refuses to issue the P60, the employee should write to HMRC directly.
Where the employer has ceased trading, HMRC can provide a Statement of Earnings (form L17) that contains the same information as a P60 and is widely accepted as a substitute by lenders and other third parties. Employees can also view their pay and tax figures for recent years through the Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK and the HMRC app, though these do not constitute a formal replacement for the P60 itself.
Employer penalties
Failure to issue a P60 by the statutory deadline is a breach of the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2003. HMRC has the power to impose an initial penalty of up to £300 per employee for each failure to comply, and a continuing daily penalty of up to £60 per employee per day if the failure persists after HMRC has issued a formal penalty notice. In practice, HMRC tends to pursue employers who show a pattern of non-compliance rather than those who miss the deadline by a small margin. However, enforcement activity has increased alongside the broader expansion of RTI compliance checking, and employers with systematic year-end failures are at genuine risk.
It is worth noting that an employer cannot cure the penalty simply by issuing the P60 after HMRC has raised it. HMRC’s guidance confirms that once a penalty notice has been issued, the liability crystallizes regardless of subsequent compliance.
Replacement P60s
Employers are not legally required to issue duplicate P60s, but most do so on request. A replacement P60 must be clearly marked “Replacement” to distinguish it from the original. Where the replacement reveals an error in the original (for example, an incorrect tax figure resulting from a payroll error), the employer must issue either an amended document or a letter setting out the correction, and may need to adjust an amended Full Payment Submission.
Conclusion
The P60 is one of the most practically important documents in the UK payroll cycle. For employees, it is the definitive proof of earnings and tax paid, needed for Self Assessment, mortgage applications, refund claims, and benefit assessments. For employers, issuing accurate P60s on time is a statutory obligation under the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2003, and the consequences of getting it wrong extend beyond administrative inconvenience to formal HMRC penalties and, in cases of persistent non-compliance, enforcement action.
The obligation is clear in its mechanics: issue a compliant P60 to every employee on the payroll at 5 April, using HMRC-approved payroll software, no later than 31 May. Errors in the underlying payroll data will flow directly into the P60, creating downstream problems. A clean P60 starts with accurate payroll records maintained throughout the year.
If you have questions about your employer’s PAYE obligations, need help with year-end payroll compliance, or require advice on a P60 discrepancy that affects a Self Assessment return, speak to a qualified accountant before taking action with HMRC.
