Leaving the UK? Claim your P85 refund

PAYE divides your Personal Allowance into twelve monthly slices. Leave the UK in month six and at least five unused slices are sitting in HMRC's account — usually several hundred pounds, often over a thousand. Form P85 is the free claim that gets it back. This is the complete guide: the mechanics, the eligibility, the process, and the situations where the P85 is the wrong form entirely.

The mechanics: why the refund exists

Your £12,570 Personal Allowance is rationed across the year by payroll — £1,047.50 of tax-free pay per month. Your employer taxes each payslip on the assumption you'll earn the same for all twelve months. Stop at September and two things are instantly true:

• The tax taken so far was computed against an imaginary full-year salary
• HMRC owes you the tax effect of the allowance you never got to use

Worked example (2025-26): £3,000/month salary, leave at the end of September (6 months worked):

• PAYE assumes £36,000/year → annual tax £4,686 → £2,343 deducted by September
• Your actual income: £18,000 → real tax: (£18,000 − £12,570) × 20% = £1,086
• Refund due: £1,257

The rule of thumb holds beautifully: earlier departure + higher salary = bigger refund. The leaving-UK calculator runs this exact comparison on your figures.

Who normally qualifies for a P85 refund

• Emigrants leaving the UK permanently to live abroad
• People moving for work who won't have UK employment again that tax year
• Students and seasonal workers finishing a UK summer job and returning home
• Anyone whose UK work ends mid-year with no more UK income for the rest of that year

The common thread: your UK income for the tax year is finished, so the year can be closed early.

The free claim, step by step

1. Get your P45 from your final employer — parts 2 and 3 are the pieces HMRC wants (photograph them before you travel; replacing them from abroad is miserable).
2. Complete form P85 on GOV.UK — online is fastest; a postal version exists for after departure.
3. Attach parts 2 and 3 of the P45 (post route) or enter figures carefully online.
4. Choose payment: a UK bank account is fastest; many overseas accounts can be nominated for transfers.
5. Wait: online claims run a few weeks; postal claims from abroad honestly take up to twelve.

When the P85 is the wrong form

HMRC steers you out of the P85 system in specific situations, and forcing it wastes months:

• You'll still have UK income after leaving — rental property, a UK pension, director's duties: you need Self Assessment with the residence pages (SA109) instead
• You're a company director leaving the UK — always the SA109 route
• The year already ended and HMRC sent a P800 — claim that reconciliation instead; P85 is for live years
• Split-year treatment applies — your year legally splits into a UK part and an overseas part, and only specific income stays UK-taxable after the split

Residence: the Statutory Residence Test in one honest paragraph

Your tax fate after leaving isn't decided by intending to leave — it's decided by the Statutory Residence Test: days in the UK, ties (home, family, work), and the pattern of past years. Most clean emigrations are safely non-resident; complicated cases (keeping a UK home available, working trips back, 183+ day years) deserve the test worked carefully, because residence decides whether the UK can tax your foreign income too. For borderline situations, HMRC's free guidance plus an hour with a UK tax professional beats any checklist.

The traps people fall into

• Claiming, then working in the UK again the same year. The next employer's code re-opens the year and the "refund" gets clawed back — sometimes as a nasty first payslip.
• Leaving the student loan out of the picture. Repayments are recalculated against overseas earnings via the SLC's overseas assessment — it catches up separately from HMRC.
• Forgetting the P800 possibility for the previous year. Two systems, two potential refunds — check both before closing the chapter.
• Currency and addresses. Cheques to a closing UK account, correspondence to a vacated flat: update everything before submission.

Timing expectations, honestly

Online P85 with UK bank details: commonly 2–5 weeks. Postal and overseas payment: up to 12 weeks. HMRC pays repayment interest automatically. If twelve weeks pass, the Income Tax helpline can trace the claim with your NI number and submission date.