P85 or Self Assessment: which route applies to you
Use P85 only if you are not filing a Self Assessment return for the leaving year. The gov.uk P85 guidance is explicit: you do not need to fill in the form if you are sending a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year you leave the UK. For those clients, the departure is reported on the SA109 residence pages that attach to the main SA100 return, not on a separate P85.
The deciding question is simple: do you already need to file Self Assessment for that year? If you have rental income, self-employment, dividends above the allowance, a high salary, or capital gains to report, you are in Self Assessment and the SA109 is your reporting route. If your only UK income was an employment that has now stopped, and you have no other reason to file, P85 is the quicker path to your refund. The table below settles most cases at a glance.
| Your situation | What to file to report leaving |
|---|---|
| Employed or retired and not in Self Assessment | Form P85 |
| Already in Self Assessment, or must file (landlord, self-employed, higher earner) | SA109 residence pages with your tax return (not a P85) |
| Keeping a UK rental after you leave | Also register under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme (form NRL1) |
- File P85 (no SA return needed): your only UK income was a PAYE job that has ended, and you have no rental income, self-employment or other Self Assessment trigger.
- File SA100 plus SA109 (not P85): you already file Self Assessment, or you have rental, self-employment, gains or other income to report for the leaving year.
- File P85 even though you also file SA: the narrow exception where you are an employee of a UK employer going abroad for at least a complete tax year and applying for an NT code.
The Self Assessment exception that catches people out
One situation makes a Self Assessment taxpayer file P85 as well: an employee of a UK employer going abroad for at least a complete tax year and applying for an NT code. Per HMRC manual EIM42940, Self Assessment customers should not complete P85 unless that description fits. The P85 is the trigger HMRC uses to issue the NT code to your employer, so the form does a job the SA109 cannot.
Here the two routes overlap rather than compete, and you may file both: P85 to obtain the NT code so future salary is paid gross, and Self Assessment with SA109 to settle the actual tax position for the leaving year. If you are leaving on a secondment or international assignment with the same UK employer, assume this exception applies and take advice before filing.
How the leaving-year refund arises
A leaving-year refund arises because PAYE gives you the Personal Allowance in even monthly slices across the whole tax year, even though you only earn for part of it. The Personal Allowance is GBP 12,570 (frozen for 2026/27). PAYE assumes you will keep earning to 5 April and spreads the allowance and the tax bands evenly month by month. Stop work and leave mid-year, and you have paid tax as though you would earn far more than you actually did, so you have overpaid.
The P85 or the SA109 lets HMRC recalculate your tax on your actual part-year earnings and refund the difference. The earlier in the tax year you leave, the larger the overpayment tends to be, because more of the unused allowance and the lower-rate bands sit against income you never earned.
Worked example: a mid-year leaver's refund
Leave halfway through the year on GBP 60,000 and you are typically owed around GBP 2,200. Take Priya, on illustrative 2026/27 rates. She earns GBP 60,000 a year and leaves the UK on 5 October 2026, exactly halfway through the tax year, so she earns GBP 30,000 in those six months. Her employer's payroll has taxed her each month as though she will earn the full GBP 60,000, so by month six it has deducted roughly half of a full-year GBP 60,000 tax bill.
- Full-year tax on GBP 60,000: GBP 37,700 taxed at 20% (GBP 7,540) plus GBP 9,730 taxed at 40% (GBP 3,892), which is GBP 11,432.
- Tax already deducted by month six (half of that full-year liability): approximately GBP 5,716.
- Actual tax due on GBP 30,000 for the year: GBP 30,000 minus the GBP 12,570 allowance equals GBP 17,430 taxed at 20%, which is GBP 3,486.
- Overpaid and reclaimable: roughly GBP 5,716 minus GBP 3,486, which is about GBP 2,200.
The exact figure depends on her tax code and the precise timing of pay, and split-year treatment can change the picture if she has post-departure UK income. The principle holds: the unused allowance and lower bands sitting against income she never earned are what generate the refund. Our income tax tool lets you sense-check the part-year position before you file.
The NT (No Tax) code and when HMRC issues it
The NT code means no UK tax is deducted at source, and HMRC issues it where a double tax treaty gives the other country the right to tax that income. For employees, HMRC issues it on the back of a P85 where an employee goes abroad for a complete tax year and applies for it; the code then tells the UK employer to pay future salary gross. Without it, your employer keeps deducting PAYE on income the treaty says is taxable only in your new country of residence.
The NT code is forward-looking: it stops future over-deduction but does not by itself recover tax already taken, which is what the leaving-year refund mechanism does. Treat them as two separate jobs: NT to fix the going-forward position, P85 or SA109 to reclaim what has already been overpaid.
NT codes on a UK pension via the DT-Individual route
For a UK pension paid to a treaty-resident retiree, the NT code follows a DT-Individual treaty claim rather than a P85. You complete the DT-Individual form for your country of residence, have it certified by that country's tax authority where required, and submit it so HMRC can authorise the pension payer to pay gross. The claim often needs a small trigger pension payment to be in place first, so HMRC has a live record to attach the code to.
Processing is not instant. Advisory firms commonly cite around 12 to 16 weeks for an NT code to come through on this route; that is an indicative range, not an official gov.uk figure, so we plan timing around it cautiously rather than treating it as a guarantee.
The link to split-year treatment
Split-year treatment can sharply reduce the UK tax on your leaving year, but it is not automatic and you must claim it. Where you qualify, the tax year splits into a UK-resident part and an overseas part: before the split date you are taxed as a UK resident, and after it only on UK-source income. You claim it on the SA109 by identifying the relevant split-year case for your circumstances.
This is where the paperwork and the strategy meet. Whether you qualify, and which case applies, turns on the Statutory Residence Test and the facts of your departure, which we cover in our split-year treatment and statutory residence test guides. For the leaving-year forms, the key practical point is that the SA109 is the document on which the claim is actually made, so a leaver in Self Assessment cannot afford to skip it.
Keeping a let UK property: register under the NRL scheme
If you keep and let a UK property after you leave, register with form NRL1 to receive your rent gross. Under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, a letting agent or, where there is no agent, the tenant must otherwise deduct basic-rate tax from your rent before paying it over. Registering as an individual non-resident landlord on NRL1 lets HMRC authorise your agent or tenant to pay the rent without UK tax deducted.
Registering does not make the rent tax-free: you still report UK rental profit to HMRC on the SA105 property pages and pay any tax due through Self Assessment. NRL1 simply stops tax being withheld up front, which improves your cash flow and saves you waiting to reclaim it. You are generally treated as a non-resident landlord once your usual place of abode is outside the UK, which normally means an absence of six months or more. See our non-resident landlord tax guide for the detail.
How long the refund takes and how the money reaches you
Expect a wait, and expect a cheque rather than a transfer. HMRC pays a departure refund by posting a payable order to you or to a nominee, payable into a UK account in that name. Crucially, HMRC will not pay the fees to convert the refund into another currency or to transfer it abroad, so a payable order is awkward if you no longer hold a UK bank account.
- Keep a UK bank account open after you leave, or nominate someone in the UK who can bank the payable order on your behalf.
- Non-residents generally cannot use HMRC's free online Self Assessment service because it does not support the SA109, so you file on paper or through commercial software.
- Watch the deadlines: paper returns are due by 31 October after the tax year, online returns by 31 January.
- Build in time for processing; refunds to people overseas are slower than domestic ones because of the payable-order route.
Your pre-departure paperwork checklist
Sort the paperwork before you go, while UK documents and access are still easy to obtain. This short, ordered checklist keeps the leaving-year filings and your refund on track.
- Decide your route: P85 only, or SA100 plus SA109, or both under the NT exception.
- Keep your final payslips and your P45 from any UK employment that ends.
- If you are an employee posted abroad for a full year, file P85 to obtain the NT code.
- If you have a UK pension, prepare the DT-Individual claim for your country of residence.
- If you keep a let property, register on NRL1 and plan to file the SA105 each year.
- Confirm whether you qualify for split-year treatment and which case applies, ready for the SA109.
- Keep a UK bank account open or line up a UK nominee for the payable order.
- Note your filing deadlines: 31 October on paper, 31 January online.
- Keep a record of your UK and overseas day counts for the Statutory Residence Test.
A note on the 6 April 2025 reforms
The gov.uk P85 and SA109 pages now reference the foreign income and gains (FIG) regime that replaced the remittance basis from 6 April 2025. If you are reading older guidance, be wary of remittance-basis terminology, because the underlying rules for foreign income and gains have changed. The forms-and-refund mechanics in this guide are unaffected, but the wider tax position of a leaver may differ from pre-2025 material.
How we handle leaving-year filings
We run the whole leaving-year filing for you: we prepare the return, claim split-year treatment on the SA109, recover the PAYE refund, and put the right NT and NRL registrations in place so future income is paid gross. Because non-residents cannot use HMRC's free online service, we file through commercial software and manage the payable-order logistics so your refund is not stranded by a closed UK account. We quote a fixed fee agreed upfront before any work starts.
If you are planning a departure, or have already left and want your refund and registrations handled cleanly, book a call. We will confirm your filing route, settle your split-year position, and give you a realistic timeline for when the money lands.