Check if you're owed a tax refund or rebate

Other tax refund calculators

• CIS tax rebateConstruction work with 20% taken off your pay.
• Marriage AllowanceMarried, and one of you earns under £12,570.
• Pension lump sumEmergency tax on money taken out of a pension.
• Pension tax reliefHigher-rate relief your provider doesn't claim.
• Leaving the UKMoved abroad part way through the tax year.
• Stopped workingRetired, lost your job or back to study.

How it works

1. 1

   Enter your details

   Pick the tax year and where you lived, then add your gross income and the tax you actually paid. Both figures are on your P60, or your final payslip for that year.

2. 2

   We apply that year's published rates

   Each tax year has its own allowances and bands, and Scotland has different ones again. The estimate uses the rates published for the exact year and country you chose, not this year's.

3. 3

   You get a figure and the workings

   The result shows every step: your allowance, your taxable income, and the tax charged in each band. If the sum looks wrong, you can see exactly where it came from.

What counts as a work expense

This is the field most people leave at zero, and it is often the one that changes the answer. You can usually claim tax relief on things you pay for yourself, that you need to do your job, and that your employer does not reimburse:

• Uniforms, protective clothing and tools, including a flat-rate allowance for washing a uniform yourself.
• Professional fees and subscriptions to approved bodies, and union fees where they qualify.
• Business mileage in your own vehicle, not commuting but travel to temporary workplaces.
• Working from home, where your job requires it rather than you choosing to.

If your employer already paid you back for something, it is not claimable. Relief reduces the income you are taxed on. It does not refund the cost itself.

What this doesn't include

An estimate is only useful if you know what it leaves out. This calculator covers income tax paid through PAYE and nothing else.

• National Insurance and student loan repayments are not included. Neither is refunded through an income tax overpayment claim, so adding them would inflate the figure beyond what HMRC would actually repay.
• It assumes one PAYE employment and no untaxed income: no self-employment, rental income, dividends or savings interest above the allowances. If you work under CIS, the CIS tax rebate calculator covers that instead.
• It uses whole-year figures. If you changed jobs, had gaps, or were on an emergency tax code for part of the year, treat the result as a rough indication. Emergency tax on a pension withdrawal works differently again, and the pension lump sum tax calculator handles that.

This is an estimate, not a formal calculation, and not tax advice. HMRC's own figure is the one that counts. You can check your income tax for previous years directly.

How to actually claim

A number on a screen is not a refund. If the estimate suggests you have overpaid, here is where each part of it is actually claimed:

• Work expenses: claim tax relief for your job expenses, using form P87 or online. This is free; you do not need an agent.
• Marriage Allowance: apply through HMRC. The partner with the lower income makes the transfer, and it can be backdated. The Marriage Allowance calculator works out what it is worth first, which is rarely the headline £252.
• Higher-rate pension relief: if you pay into a personal pension or SIPP and pay above the basic rate, your provider only reclaims the first 20%. The rest never arrives unless you ask. The pension tax relief calculator works out how much that is.
• Leaving the UK: move abroad part way through the year and PAYE will usually have given you only part of your tax-free allowance. The leaving the UK tax refund calculator works out what comes back and how to claim it with form P85.
• Stopped working: if you retired, lost your job or went back to study part way through the year, the same thing happens. The P50 tax refund calculator works out the refund and whether P50 is the right way to claim it.
• Anything else: an overpayment from a wrong tax code is usually corrected automatically; see tax overpayments and underpayments. If you need to file, use Self Assessment.

You have four years. A claim must reach HMRC within four years of the end of the tax year it relates to, so the oldest year in the list above is the one to deal with first.

Frequently asked questions