When BR is correct
HMRC issues BR deliberately for situations where your personal allowance is already being applied somewhere else. The most common scenarios:
A second job
You can only use the £12,570 personal allowance once across all your income. If you have two PAYE jobs, HMRC applies your full allowance to the main one (typically the higher-paid) and uses BR on the second — taxing every pound at 20% from £0. That roughly matches the tax you'd owe if all the income were in a single job, because the second job's earnings would otherwise sit in your basic-rate band anyway.
A pension alongside a salary
If you start drawing a private pension while still working, the pension provider usually runs PAYE on BR. Same reasoning: your allowance is being applied on your salary, so the pension income gets taxed at 20% straight away.
Starting a new job without a P45
If you've just started a new job and your previous employer hasn't sent your P45 yet, HMRC may put you on BR temporarily while they confirm your records. This usually resolves within a pay period or two — and HMRC refunds any over-deducted tax once they restore your allowance.
When BR is wrong
BR is wrong if it's on your only source of taxable income — no second job, no concurrent pension, no other earnings being taxed under PAYE. In that case your code should be 1257L (or a variation that still includes your allowance).
The cost matters: on a £30,000 salary, BR takes about £2,514 more in tax each year than 1257L would. On £50,000, the difference is the same in absolute terms but proportionally smaller — still material if it persists for months.
How to spot BR is wrong before HMRC notices
A few practical signals that BR shouldn't be on your code:
- Your take-home dropped by ~£200 a month between jobs. Moving from a 1257L payslip to a similar-salary BR payslip shows up immediately as a noticeable take-home drop.
- The "Tax code" line on your payslip changed without explanation. Standard codes don't switch to BR without an underlying change in circumstances (new job, pension started, second income).
- You've left your old job but your new payslip still shows BR. This usually means HMRC's records haven't caught up — fixable in your Personal Tax Account.
- Your annual take-home doesn't match the figures on the take-home pay calculator when you input your salary and 1257L. Run the comparison; if your real take-home is ~£200/month lower than the calculator predicts, BR is the likely culprit.
How to fix a wrong BR code
The fastest route is online:
- Open the HMRC Personal Tax Account at gov.uk/personal-tax-account. You need a Government Gateway login (10 minutes to set up if you don't have one).
- Check the "Current tax codes" section. It shows your live code at every employer with the reasoning HMRC used. If it lists an old job as still active, that's the fix to make.
- Use "Tell HMRC about a change." You can confirm a job has ended, tell HMRC about a new starter form, or update other circumstances. Most fixes apply within 1–2 working days.
- If you can't fix it online, call HMRC on 0300 200 3300. Have your National Insurance number and last payslip ready. Calls are usually answered within 15 minutes.
- Your employer applies the new code automatically once HMRC sends them a P6. You don't need to ask your employer to do anything — they can't anyway.
How quickly will I get a refund?
If the fix lands mid-tax-year, the refund comes through your next payslip — usually within one or two pay periods of HMRC updating the code. PAYE is cumulative, so when your employer recalculates your year-to-date tax against the new (correct) code, the over-deduction comes back as a credit.
If the tax year has already ended (you didn't notice until after 5 April), HMRC issues a P800 letter during the reconciliation cycle that runs each summer. P800 refunds typically arrive 4–8 weeks after the letter — by bank transfer if you've set up direct payment, by cheque otherwise.
Large overpayments (£1,000+) sometimes trigger a manual review which adds a few weeks. You can chase status from your Personal Tax Account.
BR vs other flat-rate codes
BR is one of a family of "no allowance" codes. The differences:
| Code | Tax rate applied | When HMRC uses it |
|---|---|---|
| BR | 20% on everything | Second job/pension where allowance is used elsewhere |
| D0 | 40% on everything | Second income where main income has filled the basic-rate band |
| D1 | 45% on everything | Third income or where main income exceeds £125,140 |
| 0T | Standard bands (20%/40%/45%) from £0 — no allowance | Emergency code when HMRC has no information, or income above £125,140 |
| NT | No tax | Rare special cases (seafarers, certain non-residents) |
All five share the same key property: they strip away the personal allowance. They're used because HMRC has determined your allowance belongs somewhere else — not as a penalty.
When BR is genuinely the right code
A quick checklist for "BR is correct":
- You have a second PAYE job or pension running alongside this one
- Your main income source is using 1257L (or some other code that includes the allowance)
- The total tax across both sources roughly matches what you'd pay if it were combined
If all three are true, leave it alone. If any one of them isn't, check the Personal Tax Account and fix it.