How to get a P45 from an employer or HMRC
A P45 must be handed over on the day employment ends, or without unreasonable delay if that is not practicable, and the duty sits in regulation 36 of the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2003 [1]. HMRC never issues the form and cannot produce a replacement, so every route to obtaining one runs through the employer that wrote it [2].
The P45 records pay, Income Tax and the tax code for one employment up to the leaving date, and a new employer relies on it to deduct the right tax from the first payday [3]. The practical question is rarely how to apply for one, because nobody does. The question is what to do when it is late, lost, refused, or simply needed years after the job ended.
Key takeaways
- The employer issues the P45 automatically when an employee leaves; there is no application process [2].
- A lost P45 cannot be reissued by law, though the employer may supply a duplicate copy of the original [4].
- An employee starting a new job without a P45 completes a starter checklist instead, and the new employer applies a temporary tax code [5].
- HMRC holds the same pay and tax figures and releases them free through a personal tax account or an employment-history request [6].
Why a P45 is issued, not requested
No employee fills in a form to obtain a P45. When someone leaves a job, the employer records the leaving date on the final Full Payment Submission to HMRC and produces the P45 from the same payroll data [7]. The leaver receives it as a matter of routine, on paper or as a PDF.
That single design fact explains why HMRC is never the place to ask. HMRC receives the leaving information through Real Time Information, but it does not generate or store the printed certificate, and it will not send one out on request [2]. The document is the employer's output, and the employer is the only party who can hand over the original.
Getting a P45 from an employer
From the employer who issued it
An employee who has not received a P45 should first ask whoever runs the payroll, because many employers now deliver the form through the same portal as payslips, where it can sit unopened [3]. The legal timing is clear: the form is due on the day employment ceases, or without unreasonable delay where same-day issue is not practicable [1]. A short, polite chase is usually all it takes.
A former employer that still trades keeps the underlying payroll records and can confirm the figures even where the paper copy has gone astray. Employers must retain PAYE records for at least three years after the end of the tax year they relate to, so a recent leaver is rarely left without a trail [8].
When an employer is slow to provide one
If an informal request goes unanswered, the next step is a formal grievance to the employer, the route ACAS recommends before escalation [9]. ACAS itself does not adjudicate on missing P45s, but it can advise on the wider employment relationship and on early conciliation where the dispute is part of a larger problem [9].
Where a written demand is still ignored, the matter can be reported to HMRC, which can contact the employer directly and, in persistent cases, open an employer compliance review [7]. The new employer can keep the leaver on the correct tax footing in the meantime, so a delayed P45 need not mean an emergency tax bill [5].
The four parts of a P45
The P45 is printed in four parts, and knowing which part goes where prevents the most common handling errors. The employer sends Part 1 to HMRC and gives the remaining three parts to the leaver [3]. Copies of Part 1A are not available afterwards, which is why the leaver is told to keep it safe [2].
| Part | Who holds it | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | Sent to HMRC by the employer | Reports the leaver's final pay and tax [[7]](https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye62015) |
| Part 1A | Kept by the employee | The employee's own record, not reissuable [[2]](https://www.gov.uk/paye-forms-p45-p60-p11d/p45) |
| Part 2 | Given to the new employer | Sets up the new payroll record [[3]](https://www.gov.uk/paye-forms-p45-p60-p11d) |
| Part 3 | Given to the new employer | Returned to HMRC by the new employer [[3]](https://www.gov.uk/paye-forms-p45-p60-p11d) |
When a P45 is lost
Why a replacement cannot be reissued
Once a P45 has been produced, the law prevents the employer from issuing a second one, because a duplicate certificate would corrupt the tax record HMRC builds from Real Time Information [4]. What an employer can do is provide a copy of the original document, typically by resending the PDF or reprinting the data already filed [4]. HMRC, for its part, will not step in with a replacement of any kind [2].
Starting a new job without a P45
An employee who cannot produce a P45 for a new role completes a starter checklist, the document that replaced the old P46 [5]. The answers tell the new employer which starter declaration applies, and the employer uses that to set a temporary tax code until HMRC confirms the correct one [10]. Any tax overpaid under a temporary code is reconciled automatically once HMRC issues the proper code, usually within a few pay periods [5].
Retrieving the same figures from HMRC
The certificate may be irreplaceable, but the data on it is not. HMRC holds every PAYE pay and tax figure an employer has reported, and offers three free routes to it [6]. These statements are not P45s, yet lenders, agencies and HMRC's own Self Assessment service accept the figures they carry [4].
| Route | What it provides | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Personal tax account | Pay and tax by employer and year [[11]](https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account) | A quick self-service check |
| Check Income Tax service | Current-year pay, tax and tax code [[12]](https://www.gov.uk/check-income-tax-current-year) | The job just left |
| Employment-history request | A formal statement for any year [[6]](https://www.gov.uk/get-proof-employment-history) | Older jobs or closed employers |
For a Self Assessment return, the totals retrieved this way drop into the employment pages exactly as the P45 or P60 figures would, so a missing form rarely blocks a filing [6]. Anyone who has also mislaid a year-end certificate can follow the companion guide on how to get a P60, which draws on the same HMRC records.
The employer's side of issuing a P45
For the employer, the P45 is a fixed output of the leaving process, generated from the final Full Payment Submission rather than typed up by hand [7]. Payroll software carrying the HMRC Recognised badge produces it automatically, which is why UK payroll software turns a leaver's last payday into a routine step even for a one-person company paying a single director.
A frequent complication is pay that falls due after the P45 has gone out, such as accrued holiday or a delayed bonus. The rule is to keep the original P45 and tax the later payment under code 0T on a week 1 or month 1 basis, reporting it with the payment-after-leaving indicator rather than printing a fresh certificate [13]. Bureaux running this across many client schemes handle it from a payroll platform built for accountants, and platforms that embed payroll into their own products generate every P45 programmatically through an HMRC-recognised payroll API.
Conclusion
Getting a P45 comes down to knowing who holds what. The employer holds the certificate and the duty to issue it on time; HMRC holds the data behind it and publishes that data online for self-service. Between a duplicate from the employer and a statement from HMRC, an employee is never genuinely without proof of the pay and tax a job recorded.
The balance is shifting towards the data rather than the document. As payroll figures reach HMRC in real time and tax records reconcile themselves between jobs, the printed P45 is becoming a convenience rather than the only key to a clean tax position, and a lost slip of paper carries less weight than it once did.
Frequently asked questions
Can HMRC issue a replacement P45?
No. The P45 is produced by the employer from payroll data, and HMRC neither generates nor stores the document. What HMRC can provide is the information the form carried: a personal tax account, the Check your Income Tax service, or a formal employment-history statement all show the same pay and tax figures, which serve the same purpose for tax returns and income checks.
What should an employee do if a new job starts before the old P45 arrives?
The new employer uses a starter checklist to set a temporary tax code, so the first payday can go ahead without the P45. When the form arrives, or when HMRC sends the correct code, the tax position is recalculated automatically and any overpayment is refunded through the payroll. Handing the P45 to the new employer as soon as it appears speeds that correction up.
How long does an employer have to provide a P45?
The form is due on the day employment ends, or without unreasonable delay where same-day issue is not practicable, under regulation 36 of the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2003. In practice most payroll systems generate it with the final pay run. An employee still waiting after a week or two should chase the employer in writing before reporting the delay to HMRC.
Can a P45 be downloaded online?
Only from wherever the employer publishes it, usually a payslip or HR portal, because HMRC does not host P45 documents. HMRC does let an individual download a PDF of their PAYE income history through a personal tax account, and although that is not a P45, it shows the same gross pay and tax and is widely accepted as evidence of income.
