Emergency Tax Codes
If an employee leaves another job to come to work for you, they should give you a P45 to process. If they do not have a P45, you should give them a P46 form to fill in. You send the form to the Tax Office on your employee’s behalf, and the Tax Office sends a PAYE code notification to you.
While waiting for a tax code to be allocated, you need to use an emergency tax code. Which code you use depends on which box in “your present circumstances” your employee ticked.
| Box ticked on P46 | Tax code to use |
| Box A completed | 647L on a cumulative basis |
| Box B completed | 647L on a week 1/month 1 basis |
| Box C completed | BR code on a cumulative basis |
| No box completed | BR code on a cumulative basis |
If an employee pays too much tax while they are on an emergency tax code, you can repay them the overpayment of tax when you receive their tax code notification as long as it arrives before the tax year ends. If the tax code notification arrives after the tax year ends, the Tax Office will send the repayment directly to your employee.
Filing PAYE paperwork
If you have 50 or m ore employees you must file certain PAYE paperwork online. If you have fewer than 50 employees, online filing is optional until 2011 – but from 2011, you must also file certain PAYE paperwork online.
To register to file paperwork online, go to the How to Register for PAYE online on the HM Revenue & Customs website.
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