Leaving the UK

What is a P85 form?

Answered by Jordan Onraet-Wells, Founder & Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). Published 28 July 2026. Last reviewed 28 July 2026.

The short answer

A P85, titled "Get your Income Tax right if you're leaving the UK", is the HMRC form that reports your departure from the UK and claims back overpaid Income Tax on your UK employment. You use it only if you are not sending a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year you leave; Self Assessment filers report their departure on the SA109 residence pages instead. Because PAYE spreads the £12,570 Personal Allowance across the whole tax year, a mid-year leaver has usually overpaid, and the P85 is how HMRC recalculates your part-year tax and refunds the difference.

File a P85 only if you are not sending a Self Assessment return for the leaving year; otherwise your departure goes on the SA109 residence pages.
One exception: an employee of a UK employer going abroad for at least a complete tax year and applying for an NT code files a P85 as well.
Include your P45 if you have one, or tell HMRC why you do not, for example because you are retired.
You can file the P85 online once you have left the UK, or by post before you go.
HMRC pays any refund by payable order, normally into a UK bank account, so keep one open or nominate someone in the UK.
On a £60,000 salary, someone leaving halfway through the year is often owed around £2,200.

What the P85 actually does

The P85 does two jobs. It updates HMRC's record so your PAYE position is closed off correctly, and it triggers a recalculation of your tax for the leaving year. PAYE gives you the Personal Allowance in even monthly slices on the assumption you will keep earning until 5 April, so stopping work and leaving part-way through the year normally means you have paid too much; the earlier you leave, the bigger the overpayment tends to be. For an employee of a UK employer going abroad for at least a complete tax year, the P85 has a third job: it is the trigger HMRC uses to issue an NT (No Tax) code so future UK salary can be paid gross where a double tax treaty gives your new country the taxing rights.

P85 or Self Assessment?

GOV.UK is explicit that you do not need to fill in a P85 if you are sending a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year you leave. Landlords, the self-employed, higher earners and anyone else already in Self Assessment report their departure on the SA109 residence pages attached to their return, which is also where split-year treatment is claimed. Our guide to the P85, NT codes and your leaving-year refund walks through every leaving-year form in order.

How the refund reaches you abroad

HMRC pays departure refunds by payable order, and most cheques can only be paid into a UK bank account in your name or a nominee's. HMRC will not pay the fees to convert the money into another currency or send it overseas, so keep a UK account open or line up a UK nominee before you go. Remember the P85 only settles the UK side: your destination country will usually tax you under its own rules once you become resident there, so check the position at both ends of the move.

Go deeper

Sources and further reading

This is general information for the 2026/27 UK tax year, not personal tax advice; speak to a Chartered Tax Adviser about your own position.

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