Tax refund calculator

PAYE spreads your £12,570 tax-free allowance evenly across the 2026/27 tax year (6 April to 5 April), so if you stop working part-way through it, graduation, redundancy, a career break, leaving the UK, every month you did work was taxed as if the salary would run all twelve, and those months were over-taxed. Someone on £30,000 who works five months and stops has paid tax on the assumption of a £30,000 year while actually earning £12,500, most of which sits inside the tax-free allowance. That overpayment is legally yours, the claim is free through HMRC directly (form P50 now, or the automatic P800 reconciliation later), and no refund company is ever needed. This calculator, using HMRC's 2026/27 rates checked 2026-08-28, estimates what you are owed from your salary and the months you worked.

Annual salary

Months worked this tax year (from 6 April)

I'll work again before 5 April

Estimated overpaid income tax so far

£1,452.50

You were taxed £1,452.50 but only £0.00 is due on £12,500.00 of actual earnings, because PAYE assumed the salary would run all twelve months.

How to actually get it back

If you won't work again before 5 April, claim now rather than waiting: form P50 in your personal tax account repays it within weeks. Otherwise HMRC reconciles the year automatically and posts a P800 calculation the following summer. Never pay a refund company a percentage for this, the claim is free and takes minutes. National Insurance works per pay period, so unlike income tax it is usually not refundable when you stop work.

Assumes even monthly pay on the standard 1257L code, England bands, starting from April. Emergency codes, benefits and mid-year pay changes shift the numbers, your tax code is the first thing to check.

The other common refund cases

Emergency tax on a new job: a W1/M1 code taxed each payday in isolation; refunds arrive through pay once the correct code lands. Decode yours in the tax code checker.
A wrong code all year: BR on your only job means roughly £2,514 of allowance-tax overpaid; claims backdate four tax years.
Unclaimed higher-rate pension relief: often the biggest one; see the pension relief calculator.
Work expenses: uniform washing, professional fees, mileage, claimed directly on gov.uk in minutes. Your P60 (issued each May) shows a whole year's pay and tax at a glance, the starting point for any tax-back claim covering an earlier year.

How do I claim an HMRC tax refund?

Every route is free and runs through HMRC directly, the calculator above names the right form for the stopped-work case (P50 now, or the automatic P800 later). Two routes it doesn't cover: if you are starting another job rather than stopping work, no form is needed at all, hand the new employer your P45 and cumulative PAYE repays the overpayment through your first payslips automatically. And for past years: a wrong code in an earlier year, unclaimed expenses, uniform allowance, your personal tax account on gov.uk shows each year's position and claims backdate four tax years, so a code that was wrong in 2023 is still worth hundreds of pounds today. The personal tax account is the fastest route for everything; refunds arrive by bank transfer in days once approved.

Never pay for a refund

An industry of “tax reclaim” firms takes 25-48% of refunds that HMRC pays out free on request, and signing their forms can hand them your future refunds too. Every route above is a free claim through your personal tax account. If someone contacts you promising a refund, it is at best a fee-taker and at worst a scam.

2026/27 rates, checked 2026-08-28. Estimates assume even pay and the standard code. HMRC's own calculation is definitive. Method on the about page.