P60 Calculator: Check Your End-of-Year Tax for 2026/27

Check your P60 in seconds

Enter the totals from your P60 above - your total pay for the year and the total tax deducted - and the P60 calculator works out what your tax should have been on that income for 2026/27, then tells you the difference. If you have your final tax code to hand, keep it nearby; it explains most of the surprises.

What a P60 actually tells you

A P60 is the certificate your employer must give you by 31 May after the tax year ends. It is a single-page summary of everything that passed through payroll: your total taxable pay, the income tax deducted under PAYE, your National Insurance contributions, your final tax code, and your student loan repayments if you have them. If you had more than one job, each employer issues a separate P60, and your final P60 from a job usually includes pay and tax carried over from any previous job that year.

The trap is treating the P60 as proof that your tax is correct. It only proves what was deducted - not what was due. PAYE is an estimate that runs all year on the assumption your circumstances stay steady. When they do not, the figure on your P60 can be hundreds of pounds out in either direction. That is exactly the gap this P60 calculator is built to find.

How the P60 calculator works

The maths behind the tool mirrors how HMRC arrives at your real liability for the year. In plain words:

Tax due = Income Tax on (total pay minus your Personal Allowance) - and then you compare that with the tax actually deducted shown on your P60.

Step by step, for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2026/27:

• Start with the total pay figure from your P60 (this is your taxable pay - it is already after any pension deducted before tax).
• Subtract the Personal Allowance of £12,570 to get your taxable income. If you earned over £100,000, the allowance tapers (more on that below).
• Tax the first £37,700 of taxable income at the 20% basic rate.
• Tax anything between £37,700 and £125,140 of taxable income at the 40% higher rate.
• Tax anything above £125,140 at the 45% additional rate.
• Compare that total with the tax deducted box on your P60. If you paid more, you may be owed a refund. If you paid less, you may have an underpayment to settle.

National Insurance works differently and is not refundable in the same way, because it is calculated separately for each pay period rather than smoothed across the year. The P60 calculator focuses on income tax, which is where the cumulative PAYE system can leave you over or under paid by the time your end of year tax certificate lands.

If you are a Scottish taxpayer (your tax code starts with an S), the bands are different - Scotland sets its own rates from a 19% starter rate up to a 48% top rate - while the £12,570 Personal Allowance still applies UK-wide. We cover that split in the regional section further down.

Worked example: Priya, a nurse who changed jobs

Priya is an NHS nurse in Leeds. She moved hospitals partway through 2026/27 and was put on an emergency tax code for two months at her new job. Her P60 shows total pay of £34,000 and total tax deducted of £5,200.

Here is what she actually owed:

• Total pay: £34,000
• Less Personal Allowance: £34,000 - £12,570 = £21,430 taxable
• All of that sits in the basic rate band, so: £21,430 × 20% = £4,286 income tax due

Priya paid £5,200 but only owed £4,286. That is an overpayment of £914. The emergency code meant she did not get the benefit of her full tax-free allowance while it was applied, so HMRC took more than it should have. Once the year closes, HMRC usually reconciles this automatically and sends a P800 calculation, but plenty of people never check, and a four-figure refund can sit unclaimed.

Worked example: Marcus, a higher earner with a bonus

Marcus is a project manager in Manchester. His P60 shows total pay of £72,000 and tax deducted of £15,400, after a one-off bonus pushed him further into the higher-rate band late in the year.

• Total pay: £72,000
• Less Personal Allowance: £72,000 - £12,570 = £59,430 taxable
• First £37,700 at 20% = £7,540
• Remaining £59,430 - £37,700 = £21,730 at 40% = £8,692
• Total income tax due = £7,540 + £8,692 = £16,232

Marcus paid £15,400 but owed £16,232 - an underpayment of £832. This often happens when a bonus lands in one month and the payroll system does not fully catch up before the year ends, or when benefits in kind reported on a P11D are not coded in. HMRC will normally collect the shortfall through next year's tax code, so it is better to know now than to be surprised by a smaller pay packet later.

2026/27 income tax rates and thresholds

These are the figures the P60 calculator uses for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Source: gov.uk income tax rates, checked for the 2026/27 tax year.

The Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 you earn above £100,000, and disappears entirely at £125,140. National Insurance for employees in 2026/27 runs at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above that - useful context for reading the NI box on your P60, though it is not part of the income tax reconciliation.

Scotland: why your P60 maths is different

If you live in Scotland and your tax code starts with S, your employment income is taxed on the Scottish bands, not the rates in the table above. For 2026/27 these run through a starter rate of 19%, a basic rate of 20%, an intermediate rate of 21%, a higher rate of 42%, an advanced rate of 45% and a top rate of 48%. The £12,570 Personal Allowance is the same as the rest of the UK, but the band widths differ, so a Scottish taxpayer on the same salary as Priya or Marcus will land on a different income tax figure. If your code starts with S, check your P60 against the Scottish rates rather than the table above - our Scotland tax calculator handles those bands. Savings and dividend income are still taxed at UK-wide rates wherever you live.

Common mistakes when checking a P60

• Reading the wrong box. A P60 has separate figures for income tax and National Insurance. People often compare their NI deduction against income tax bands and panic. The reconciliation in this P60 calculator is about income tax only.
• Forgetting a second job. If you had two jobs, your Personal Allowance is usually set against one of them, with the other taxed on a BR or D0 code. Each P60 only shows that job's slice, so you need to add both together to see the full year. Our second job tax calculator shows how the allowance is split.
• Ignoring an emergency or wrong tax code. Codes ending in W1, M1 or X are emergency codes that ignore the cumulative position. They are the single most common reason a P60 shows an overpayment, especially after starting a new job. Our emergency tax calculator shows the impact.
• Pension already deducted. If you are in a net-pay or salary-sacrifice pension scheme, the total pay on your P60 is already reduced - do not subtract pension again, or your figures will not match.
• Benefits in kind not coded. A company car or medical insurance reported on a P11D often is not reflected in your code until later, which can quietly create an underpayment like the one in Marcus's example.
• Assuming the P60 is the final word. If your figures do not match, the calculation does not replace HMRC's official reconciliation. It tells you whether it is worth checking your Personal Tax Account or waiting for a P800.

What to do if the numbers do not match

If the P60 calculator suggests you overpaid, log in to your HMRC Personal Tax Account and look for a P800 tax calculation or a simple assessment for the year. Refunds for genuine overpayments can often be claimed online, and HMRC usually issues them automatically after the year-end reconciliation. If it suggests you underpaid, do not ignore it - HMRC will normally adjust next year's tax code to recover the amount, and knowing in advance lets you budget for the change. Either way, keep your P60; you will need it for a mortgage application, a tax credits or benefits claim, or a Self Assessment return.

If you are also self-employed or have rental or dividend income on top of your salary, your P60 only covers the PAYE side. You would file a Self Assessment return to bring it all together, and you can estimate any extra owed with our tax refund calculator.

These figures are estimates for guidance only and are not personal tax or financial advice. Always confirm your final position with HMRC or a qualified adviser.

Who should use this calculator

Your P60 is the annual summary of pay and tax deducted, and checking it is worth ten minutes. Errors are not rare, and they are almost always in HMRC’s favour when a tax code has been wrong — an emergency code, an out-of-date benefit, or an employer using the wrong figures.

This recalculates what the tax on your P60 pay should have been and compares it with what was deducted. A difference does not necessarily mean an error — benefits in kind and other income affect it — but it tells you whether to look further, and refunds can be claimed for four years.

What this calculator assumes

• Pay and tax figures come from your P60 for the tax year.
• Tax due is recalculated on the standard Personal Allowance and the bands for that year.
• The comparison is Income Tax only.
• Selecting Scotland applies Scottish bands.

Limitations — what it does not cover

• Benefits in kind, which reduce your tax code and legitimately increase tax without appearing on the P60 as pay.
• Underpayments from earlier years, collected through an adjusted code.
• Other income — savings, dividends, rent — which may be collected through the code.
• Multiple employments, each with its own P60 and its own allocation of allowance.
• National Insurance, which is assessed per period and not reconciled annually.
• Marriage Allowance or other adjustments already applied to your code.

Related calculators

Once you have checked your end-of-year position, these tools help with the rest of your pay and tax picture: the income tax calculator for a full breakdown of any salary, the take-home pay calculator to see your monthly net pay, and the tax refund calculator if you think HMRC owes you money.

Related guides

Changing jobs? See what a P45 is and what to do with each part.