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UK tax code · 2026/27

Why is my tax code 0T?

Tax code 0T tells your employer to apply no Personal Allowance at all — every penny of pay is taxed at the standard 20%/40%/45% bands. Sometimes this is correct; usually it's an emergency code that needs fixing.

4-minute read

Tax code 0T means no Personal Allowance applied. Pay is taxed at standard bands from £1: 20% to £37,700, 40% to £112,570, 45% above. The 0 is the allowance (zero). The T means HMRC has “other items to review”. It is sometimes correct (e.g. income above £125,140) but more often signals HMRC doesn’t have your details yet.

Three reasons you might be on 0T

  1. HMRC has no information about you yet. Common in a first job, after a long gap in employment, or if you didn’t hand over a P45. PAYE defaults to 0T as a safe placeholder until HMRC issues a proper code.
  2. Your income exceeds £125,140 a year. Above this point your Personal Allowance is fully tapered to zero — so 0T accurately reflects the position. PAYE applies tax at standard bands from £0 of your salary.
  3. HMRC has flagged your record for review. Could be an underpayment recovery, a Self Assessment query, or an unresolved benefit in kind. The T suffix signals HMRC wants to keep your code under manual review.

Worked example — £30,000 salary on 0T vs 1257L

Comparing the same £30,000 salary on the standard code vs 0T:

Component1257L (correct)0T (wrong)
Gross salary£30,000£30,000
Personal Allowance applied£12,570£0
Income tax (20%)−£3,486−£6,000
Employee NI−£1,394−£1,394
Take-home£25,120£22,606

The wrong 0T code costs you £2,514 a year in overpaid tax on a £30k salary — about £210 a month less in your bank account.

The good newsHMRC refunds the overpaid tax automatically through PAYE once your code is corrected. No separate claim needed. The refund typically arrives in the next 1-2 pay periods after the corrected code reaches your employer.

When 0T is correct

The only routinely-correct reason to be on 0T is income above £125,140. At this point your Personal Allowance has fully tapered to zero (it tapers by £1 for every £2 over £100,000, and ends at £125,140).

So for someone earning £150,000 a year, 0T is technically right: every penny is taxable. Most high earners actually see a T-suffix code (like 0T or with custom adjustments) reflecting their tapered PA and any benefits in kind.

If you're under £100,000 and on 0T, it’s almost certainly wrong.

How to fix a wrong 0T code

Action 1: Submit a Starter Checklist if you're new to the jobIf you started a new job without a P45, complete the HMRC Starter Checklist your employer should have given you. It tells HMRC your tax situation so they can issue the correct code. The form is at gov.uk/government/publications/paye-starter-checklist.
Action 2: Check your Personal Tax AccountLog into gov.uk/personal-tax-account. Under PAYE you can see your current code and the explanation. If the displayed code is 1257L but your payslip says 0T, your employer’s payroll system hasn’t caught up yet.
Action 3: Phone HMRCCall 0300 200 3300 with your NI number and last payslip. The call typically takes 10-15 minutes. HMRC issues a corrected code to your employer within 1-2 days.
Action 4: Wait for the auto-refundOnce the corrected code is applied (next pay period after HMRC notifies your employer), PAYE automatically refunds the overpaid tax. Your next payslip will show a credit equal to the cumulative overpayment.

Check your emergency tax position

The emergency tax refund checker shows how much overpaid PAYE you can reclaim, and whether HMRC will refund automatically or via a separate claim.

Open the refund checker →

Other UK tax codes explained

Sources and methodology

Tax code 0T rules from gov.uk/tax-codes. Personal Allowance taper from gov.uk/income-tax-rates. Starter Checklist from gov.uk/government/publications/paye-starter-checklist.

UK Tax Drag is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and does not provide regulated financial advice — see the content disclaimer for the full position. The methodology page documents how every calculator is built and reviewed.

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