Tax code checker
Your tax code is a set of instructions to your employer's payroll, not a judgement about you. Most of the codes people worry about are doing exactly what they should.
That is £28,720 a year after income tax, National Insurance and anything else coming off your pay.
- Income tax
- £4,486
- National Insurance
- £1,794
- Effective rate
- 17.9%
- Marginal rate
- 28.0%
| Year | Month | Week | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | £35,000.00 | £2,916.67 | £673.08 | £17.95 |
| Income tax | £-4,486.00 | £-373.83 | £-86.27 | £-2.30 |
| National Insurance | £-1,793.92 | £-149.49 | £-34.50 | £-0.92 |
| Take-home pay | £28,720.08 | £2,393.34 | £552.31 | £14.73 |
What the letters mean
| Code | What it means |
|---|---|
| L | The standard tax-free Personal Allowance. |
| M | You have received 10% of your partner's Personal Allowance through Marriage Allowance. |
| N | You have given 10% of your Personal Allowance to your partner. |
| T | Your code includes other calculations - most often the taper that removes your allowance above GBP 100,000. |
| 0T | No Personal Allowance at all. Every pound is taxed, starting at the basic rate. |
| BR | All of this income is taxed at the basic rate. Usually a second job. |
| D0 | All of this income is taxed at the higher rate. |
| D1 | All of this income is taxed at the additional rate. |
| D2 | Scotland only. All of this income is taxed at the top rate. |
| NT | No tax is deducted from this income. |
| K | Untaxed income or benefits are worth more than your allowance, so the code adds notional pay rather than taking it away. Tax can never take more than half your pay in a period. |
A numeric code is your tax-free allowance with the last digit removed, so 1257L means £12,570 of tax-free pay spread across your pay periods. An S in front means Scottish rates and a C means Welsh rates, which currently match the English ones.
Emergency codes
W1, M1 or X after your code means it is being operated on a non-cumulative basis. You get one period's worth of allowance and band with no reference to what you have already earned this year, which is why a new job or a first job often over-deducts.
It is a holding position, not a penalty. Once HMRC issues a proper cumulative code the over-deduction comes back through your pay. If it has not resolved after three payslips, ring HMRC — that is usually a missing starter declaration rather than anything complicated.
The one code worth checking carefully
A K code is the one to look at properly. It means untaxed income or benefits are worth more than your allowance, so instead of giving you tax-free pay the code adds notional pay on top of your salary. Payrolled benefits, a company car, or an underpayment being collected from a previous year are the usual causes. Tax under a K code can never take more than half of any single payment, which is the statutory overriding limit and the reason a K code payslip is odd rather than catastrophic. Use the calculator above with a K code entered to see the effect.
Questions people actually ask
What is the standard tax code for 2026/27?
1257L, and it has been 1257L since 2021/22 because the Personal Allowance has been frozen at £12,570 throughout. That freeze now runs to April 2031.
Why am I on a BR code?
BR taxes everything at the basic rate with no allowance, which is normal for a second job where your allowance is already used against the first. If your main job pays less than £12,570 you should ask HMRC to split the allowance between the two.
What is a K code?
A code where your untaxed income or benefits exceed your allowance, so the code adds pay rather than taking it away. Tax still cannot exceed 50% of the payment.
How do I fix a wrong tax code?
Through your personal tax account on GOV.UK or by ringing HMRC. Your employer cannot change it on your say-so — they must operate the code HMRC issues.
Related
Figures on this page are for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) and were last checked on 29 August 2026. Every rate we use is listed on the sources page.