Summarise with AI
What a P45 contains
- The employee's name, National Insurance number and leaving date
- Total pay and tax deducted from 6 April to the leaving date
- The tax code in use when they left
- The employer's PAYE reference
The point of all of it is continuity. Without a P45 the next employer has to apply an emergency tax code, which normally means the new starter overpays tax for a period and has to reclaim it. Issuing the P45 promptly is a small administrative act that saves someone real money and hassle.
P45 vs P60
They are easy to confuse because both summarise pay and tax. A P45 is a leaving document covering the part-year up to the leaving date. A P60 goes to people still employed at the end of the tax year and covers the whole year. If someone leaves in November they get a P45, not a P60.
When it is wrong
Errors usually come from the same place: a final pay run that missed something. Untaken holiday not paid, a final shift not included, or sickness in the last period — since 6 April 2026 statutory sick pay is payable from day one with no earnings threshold, so short absences that previously produced nothing now do.
If the figures are wrong, correct them and issue an amended P45. The way to avoid it is to have the leaver's final hours and accrued holiday already recorded rather than reconstructed — which is what a structured offboarding process is for. What else belongs in that final payment, and when the P45 has to be issued, is set out in final pay when someone leaves.
