Am I owed a tax rebate? The PAYE guide

In short

• Most employed people who overpay do it for one of five reasons: work expenses, a wrong tax code, a second job, leaving a job mid-year or a pension withdrawal.
• HMRC does not chase you to claim expenses. You have to ask.
• Claims go back 4 tax years.
• The free check takes 60 seconds and works from your HMRC record.

See what your job can claim: tax rebates by job, or get a rough figure from our tax rebate calculators.

The five reasons people overpay

1. You pay for work costs yourself

Travel between sites or clients in your own car, washing a uniform, tools, professional fees and union subs. HMRC allows tax relief on all of them, but only if you claim. See what you can claim tax back on.

2. Your tax code is wrong

A code is HMRC's guess at your allowance for the year. Change job, start a second one or receive a benefit and the guess can be off for years. Tax codes explained.

3. A second job taxed at BR

All of your allowance sits against one job, so the second is taxed at 20% from the first pound. If the first job does not use the whole allowance, you overpay. Second job tax.

4. You left a job or had a gap

PAYE spreads your allowance across 12 months. Stop working in month 8 and four months of allowance go unused.

5. A pension or PPI payout was taxed at emergency rates

One-off payments are often taxed as if you earned that much every month. P55 and PPI guides cover these.

How to tell which applies to you

• Check your payslip. A code other than 1257L is worth understanding.
• Do you drive between workplaces, wash a uniform or buy your own kit? Then reason 1 almost certainly applies.
• Had two employers in the same year, or a gap? Reason 3 or 4.

Worked example

A support worker drives 5,000 miles a year between clients and is paid 20p a mile by the agency. HMRC allowed 45p a mile in the 4 back years (55p from April 2026), so 25p a mile is claimable: £1,250 of relief, £250 tax back a year at 20%, about £1,000 over 4 years before our fee.

What happens next

You can claim yourself with a P87 or through HMRC's online account. Or let us pull your record and work it out: how it works, what it costs. No refund, no fee.

Questions

Will HMRC tell me if I have overpaid?

Only for tax already in its system, through a P800. Expenses it does not know about are never refunded automatically.

Does claiming affect my employer?

No. It is between you and HMRC.

I earn under £12,570.

Then you paid no income tax and there is nothing to refund, however much you spent.

Check my rebate