Your jobs and code
What this means
A second-job code changes how tax is withheld through the year. If the code is too generous, you can get more take-home now but owe tax later. If it is too harsh, you may get a refund later.
This page is for the common two-job question: what does the code on the second job actually do, and is too much or too little tax likely to be coming off overall?
A second-job code changes how tax is withheld through the year. If the code is too generous, you can get more take-home now but owe tax later. If it is too harsh, you may get a refund later.
BR taxes all pay from that job at 20%. D0 taxes it all at 40%. D1 taxes it all at 45%. 0T gives no allowance but still uses the normal bands. 1257L gives that job a full standard allowance, which is often too generous if the main job already has one.
This page uses 2026/27 England, Wales and Northern Ireland band assumptions for a simple annual comparison. It does not model Scottish codes or payroll-period emergency treatment.