Leaving the UK: telling HMRC with the P85 and sorting your last tax year

Most leavers are owed money by HMRC, not the other way round, but you only get it back if you tell the taxman you've gone.

The short version

• If you've been employed in the UK and you're leaving, form P85 tells HMRC you've left and lets you claim back tax from your UK job [1].
• You don't need a P85 if you're sending a Self Assessment return for the tax year you leave. The return does the same job, with the SA109 residence pages [1][2].
• Keep your P45 from your last employer. HMRC wants the details from it when you claim [1].
• Refunds usually arrive as a payable order to be paid into a UK bank account, and HMRC won't pay currency conversion fees, so keep your UK account open until the money lands [1].
• Telling HMRC you've left isn't the same as being non-resident. That's decided by the Statutory Residence Test, and the year you leave is usually split only if you meet one of the split-year cases [3].

P85 or Self Assessment: which one is yours?

The P85 is aimed at employees. GOV.UK says you can use it if you lived and worked in the UK, have left and may not be coming back, or are going to work abroad full time for at least one full tax year [1]. If you're already in Self Assessment, or your affairs are more tangled than a single job, the tax return replaces it.

If you send a Self Assessment return for the year you leave, you don't also need a P85 [1].

Filling in the P85

The form asks the questions HMRC needs to judge your residence position and any refund. Expect to tell HMRC whether you'll keep a home in the UK, whether you'll work full time abroad, whether you'll still get UK pay, and how much time you expect to spend in the UK over the next three years [1].

You can send it two ways [1]:

1. Online, once you've left. You sign in to your HMRC account and get a reference number to track the claim. You can't use the online version if you haven't left the UK yet.
2. By post, if you're still in the UK or don't want to use the online service. You print the form, fill it in and post it to Pay As You Earn, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AS. The postal form can't save your progress, so gather your details first.

Your P45 and your last payslip

When you leave your job, your employer gives you a P45 showing your pay and tax to date in the tax year. Don't bin it with the packing boxes. The P85 asks for the "details of employee leaving work" from it, and if you don't have one you need to explain why, for example because you're retired [1].

Your last payslip is worth keeping too. Between the two, you have the evidence of what you earned and what PAYE took off before you went.

Why you're probably owed a refund

PAYE is built on the assumption that you'll earn at the same rate all year. Each month it hands out a slice of your Personal Allowance, which is £12,570 for both 2025/26 and 2026/27 [5]. Leave in July and you've had only a few slices, but the allowance is for the whole tax year.

So if you stop earning in the UK part-way through a tax year, the tax PAYE took is often more than your real bill for the year. That gap is what the P85 claim gets back. The bigger the earnings before you left and the earlier in the tax year you went, the more noticeable it can be. There's no fixed figure: it depends on your pay, any other UK income and your residence position for the year.

How the money reaches you

If you're due a repayment, HMRC posts a payable order to your address or to a nominee, and it has to be paid into a bank account in your name or theirs. HMRC is blunt that it "will not pay any fees to convert your repayment into another currency", and suggests you keep your UK bank account open until the refund arrives [1]. One more reason not to close your UK current account in a fit of new-life minimalism.

GOV.UK doesn't give a fixed processing time for P85 claims. Use HMRC's "check when you can expect a reply" tool rather than guessing [1].

When HMRC treats you as gone

Here's the catch that trips people up. Sending a P85 tells HMRC your plans. It doesn't decide your residence. Since 2013 that's done by the Statutory Residence Test, which looks at the whole tax year (6 April to 5 April), the days you spend in the UK and your ties here [3].

The default rule is blunt: if you're UK resident for a tax year, you're resident for all of it. The year you leave is only cut in two if you meet one of the split-year cases. For leavers, those are Case 1 (starting full-time work overseas), Case 2 (the partner of someone in Case 1) and Case 3 (ceasing to have a UK home) [3]. Each case also needs you to be non-resident in the following tax year, so the answer for the year you leave can depend on what you do in the next one.

In practice that means:

• In the year you leave, you're usually UK resident, possibly with a split year.
• From the next full tax year, you're non-resident if you meet one of the automatic overseas tests, or if you don't have enough UK ties for the days you spend here [3].
• If you come back within five years, the temporary non-residence rules can tax some income and gains you received while away [3].

Our guides on the Statutory Residence Test and split-year treatment go through the detail.

When you need Self Assessment instead

You'll usually need a Self Assessment return, rather than just a P85, if you keep UK income that isn't fully taxed at source. GOV.UK's list for people living abroad includes rent from UK property, UK self-employment, taxable savings interest from UK banks and building societies, and other untaxed UK income [6].

A few practical points:

• Registering. If you've never filed before, you need to tell HMRC by 5 October after the end of the tax year concerned. For 2025/26, that deadline was 5 October 2026 [7].
• The SA109. These are the residence pages that go with the main SA100 return. You use them to record your residence status, claim split-year treatment and claim personal allowances as a non-resident [2].
• Filing from abroad. HMRC's own online service doesn't take returns from non-residents reporting this income. You post the return with the SA109, use commercial software that supports the SA109, or use a tax professional [6].
• Deadlines. Paper returns are due by 31 October after the tax year ends, earlier than the online deadline, and HMRC fines late returns [6].

If you plan to let your UK home, read our guide to the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme before the first rent payment.

A leaving checklist for the taxman

1. Get your P45 and keep your final payslip.
2. Decide P85 or Self Assessment using the table above.
3. Post the P85 before you go, or file it online once you've left.
4. Keep your UK bank account open until any refund is paid [1].
5. Give HMRC a forwarding address, so letters don't land on your old doormat in Basingstoke.
6. Count your days. From your first full tax year abroad, keep a simple log of nights in the UK. You'll want it for the residence test.
7. Check your National Insurance record before you go. Gaps can be filled with voluntary contributions, which we cover in our guide to Class 2 and Class 3.

If your position is complicated (a sale of UK property, share options, a pension you're drawing, or a partner moving separately), a tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case. And if you'd like to compare notes with people who've done the same paperwork, our community groups for Brits abroad are a good place to ask.

Sources

1. HMRC: Get your Income Tax right if you're leaving the UK (P85), GOV.UK, updated 23 August 2024
2. HMRC: Self Assessment: Residence, remittance basis etc (SA109), GOV.UK, 2026 notes
3. HMRC: RDR3 Statutory Residence Test (SRT) guidance note, GOV.UK, updated 11 June 2026
4. GOV.UK: Tax on your UK income if you live abroad: rental income
5. HMRC: Income Tax rates and allowances for current and previous tax years, updated 6 April 2026
6. GOV.UK: Tax on your UK income if you live abroad
7. GOV.UK: Register for Self Assessment

Keep reading

• The Statutory Residence Test explained
• Split-year treatment: the year you leave
• UK income while you live abroad: rent, pensions and savings
• Voluntary National Insurance from abroad: Class 2 vs Class 3