What does the NT tax code mean?
NT means: NT: no tax is deducted from this income at all. Rare; usually specific HMRC arrangements. In short: no tax deducted at all. A UK tax code is the instruction HMRC sends your employer for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027): it sets how much of your pay is tax-free before income tax is deducted through PAYE, so the code on your payslip directly decides your take-home. The standard code for most employees with one job is 1257L, worth £12,570 of tax-free income a year, any other code should have a reason behind it (a company benefit, a second job, an HMRC adjustment), and a code that's wrong for your situation means paying the wrong tax every single payday until it's fixed. Decoded below against HMRC's rules as checked on 2026-08-28, with what NT costs or saves against the standard code.
Decoded
On a £32,000 salary, NT deducts roughly £3,886.00 less income tax per year than the standard 1257L code.
What NT is worth, and the deduction it does not stop
NT is the only code on this list that collects nothing. Against the standard 1257L code it is worth the whole income tax bill: on £32,000 that is £3,886.00 a year kept, or £323.83 a month.
The part that catches people out is what an NT code leaves running. A tax code instructs payroll on income tax only, and National Insurance is charged on earnings by a separate set of thresholds that no code touches. On the same £32,000 that is still £1,554.40 a year in National Insurance, so the take-home is £30,446 rather than the full £32,000. A student loan deduction works the same way and is equally unaffected.
Because of that, NT arriving unexpectedly is worth questioning rather than enjoying: it is issued for specific circumstances, and if yours have ended the tax is still due. Compare it with 0T, which is the opposite instruction, no allowance rather than no tax.
How do I find out what code I should be on?
Your current code is on every payslip and on your P60, and the reasoning behind it is in your HMRC personal tax account, which lists the allowances and deductions that produced the number. If the account shows an estimate that is out of date, a company benefit you no longer have or a job you have left, you can change it there and a new code reaches your employer within a few weeks. Employers cannot change a code themselves: they apply whatever HMRC issues, so the fix always runs through HMRC rather than payroll.
Check your own code
Type any code, this page's and every other format HMRC issues:
Tax-free allowance of about £12,570.00 a year.
- L: you get the standard personal allowance.
Other codes people look up
2026/27 rules, checked 28 August 2026 by Hadi. If your code looks wrong, correct it via your personal tax account on gov.uk, refunds for the current year arrive through your pay automatically.