A Reddit user recently asked a question that thousands of PAYE employees wonder about every year:

“I am just wondering if anyone would be able to tell me if and when I will get a letter about if I am getting a tax refund as last year it was around April-June when I got one. However, I am yet to receive one for this year. I have downloaded the HMRC app but don’t know if there’s a way to see if I will be getting anything back.”

If you’re a PAYE employee (or pensioner) and you got a tax refund letter last year but haven’t had one this year, here’s the short answer: you might not be owed one this year, and you don’t have to wait for a letter to find out. But let’s explain why, because the P800 process is something HMRC explains badly.

What Is a P800?

A P800 is HMRC’s annual tax calculation letter, sent to PAYE employees and pensioners after the tax year ends. According to HMRC’s guidance on tax overpayments and underpayments:

“If you’ve paid too much or too little tax by the end of the tax year (5 April), HM Revenue and Customs will send you either a tax calculation letter (also known as a P800) or a Simple Assessment letter.”

At the end of every tax year, HMRC reconciles the income and tax figures your employer (or pension provider) reported via Real Time Information (RTI) against what you actually should have paid. If there’s a discrepancy — you overpaid or underpaid beyond a set tolerance — a P800 is generated automatically.

The letter shows:

  • Your taxable income for the year
  • The tax you’ve already paid (via PAYE)
  • Whether you’ve overpaid (refund due) or underpaid (tax owed)
  • How to claim your refund or how HMRC will collect the underpayment

If the numbers match — you paid exactly the right amount — the year is marked “Reconciled - Balanced” and no letter is sent. This is the most common outcome, and it’s the one nobody tells you about.

When Are P800 Letters Sent?

According to HMRC’s guidance:

“The letters are sent out between June and March of the following tax year.”

So for the 2024-25 tax year (ended 5 April 2025), P800 letters are sent between June 2025 and March 2026. That’s a wide window — some people get their letter in June, others in November, others not until the following March. There’s no way to predict exactly when yours will arrive (if you’re getting one at all).

The Tax Confident campaign (an HMRC-backed initiative) confirms:

“Once that tax year ends, P800s are usually sent out between June and March.”

Why the window is so wide

HMRC has to wait for all employers to submit their final RTI reports for the tax year, then run the reconciliation across millions of records. The process runs in batches over several months. Employees with simpler tax affairs (single employer, no benefits, no changes mid-year) tend to be reconciled earlier. Those with multiple jobs, changes of employer, benefits in kind, or pension income may be reconciled later.

Why You Might Not Get a P800 This Year

This is the key thing the Reddit poster didn’t understand: getting a P800 last year doesn’t mean you’ll get one every year.

A P800 is only sent when there’s a discrepancy. Common reasons you got one last year but won’t this year:

  • Your tax code was corrected mid-year — if HMRC adjusted your code after last year’s P800 showed an underpayment, the correction may have fixed the problem for this year, meaning you paid the right amount and no letter is needed.
  • Your circumstances stabilised — if last year’s discrepancy was caused by a job change, a benefit starting or stopping, or a pension kicking in, and nothing changed this year, the numbers may now balance.
  • The discrepancy was within tolerance — HMRC has a built-in tolerance (a few pounds either way). If you’re only slightly off, the year is marked balanced and no letter is sent.
  • You’re now in Self Assessment — if your income rose above £100,000, or you started self-employment, you may no longer get a P800. Instead, you declare everything on a Self Assessment return.

In short: no letter usually means no problem. It means HMRC’s records show you paid the right amount.

How to Check Without Waiting for a Letter

This is the part the Reddit poster was missing — they’d downloaded the HMRC app but didn’t know where to look. You don’t need to wait for a P800 to find out if you’re owed a refund.

In the HMRC app

  1. Open the HMRC app (download from the App Store or Google Play)
  2. Sign in with your Government Gateway details
  3. Go to “Check your Income Tax”
  4. Look at the current tax year and the previous tax year
  5. If you’re owed a refund, it’ll show there with a “Claim a refund” button

On the GOV.UK website

  1. Go to your Personal Tax Account
  2. Sign in with your Government Gateway credentials
  3. Navigate to “Check your Income Tax”
  4. Select the tax year you want to check
  5. You’ll see your income, tax paid, and whether a reconciliation has been completed

If the reconciliation shows you’ve overpaid, you can claim the refund online directly from there — you don’t need to wait for a P800 letter to arrive.

If you can’t see anything yet

If the previous tax year’s reconciliation hasn’t been completed yet, you’ll see your income and tax paid but no refund or underpayment figure. This means HMRC hasn’t run your reconciliation yet — check back in a few weeks. The process runs through to March, so it may simply not be your turn yet.

If You Are Owed a Refund

If your P800 (or your online check) shows you’re owed a refund, claiming it is straightforward. According to HMRC’s refund guidance:

Claim online (fastest)

  • Log into your Personal Tax Account or use the link on your P800
  • Enter your bank details
  • The refund arrives within 5 working days

Cheque by post

  • If your P800 says HMRC will send a cheque, you don’t need to do anything — it arrives within 14 days of the letter date
  • If you’d prefer a cheque when the letter offers bank transfer, you can request one online
  • Cheque refunds take up to 6 weeks

The 4-year deadline

You have 4 years from the end of the tax year to claim a refund. For the 2024-25 tax year, that’s 5 April 2029. But there’s no reason to wait — the money earns nothing sitting with HMRC, and there’s no advantage to delaying.

If Your P800 Says You Owe Tax

Not all P800s bring good news. If the letter shows you’ve underpaid:

  • Under £3,000: HMRC will usually collect it by adjusting your tax code for the following tax year, spreading the cost across 12 months. The letter will explain this.
  • £3,000 or more: You’ll need to pay it directly — the letter will tell you how.

If you think the underpayment is wrong — for example, HMRC used the wrong income figure or didn’t account for something — you can dispute it. Contact HMRC through your Personal Tax Account or call the helpline on the letter.

The “Extra Statutory Concession” for underpayments

If the underpayment was caused by HMRC failing to use information they already had (e.g., your employer sent them correct RTI data and they didn’t act on it), you may be able to ask HMRC to write off the underpayment under Extra Statutory Concession A19. This is worth knowing about if you receive an unexpected underpayment demand — it doesn’t apply in most cases, but it’s worth checking whether HMRC’s failure to act promptly caused the shortfall.

What If No P800 Arrives and You Think You Overpaid?

If you think you’ve overpaid tax but no P800 arrives by March, you don’t have to just accept it. You can claim a tax refund directly from HMRC without a P800.

Common situations where you might overpay and not get an automatic P800:

  • You stopped working partway through the year — you may have paid too much tax because your Personal Allowance was spread across the full year
  • You had multiple jobs — your tax code may not have been split correctly between employers
  • You were on an emergency tax code — the “W1/M1” (week 1 / month 1) code doesn’t account for previous pay in the year, often leading to overpayment
  • Your pension started or stopped mid-year

In these cases, you can submit a claim using form P50 (for leaving work) or contact HMRC directly.

The Bottom Line

  1. P800s are sent between June and March after the tax year ends — there’s a wide window and no way to predict exactly when yours will arrive.
  2. Not getting a P800 is usually good news — it means HMRC’s records show you paid the right amount. You only get a letter when there’s a discrepancy.
  3. You don’t need to wait for a letter. Log into the HMRC app or your Personal Tax Account, go to “Check your Income Tax,” and see your reconciliation status. If you’re owed a refund, claim it online.
  4. Refunds arrive within 5 working days if you claim online (bank transfer), or 14 days if HMRC sends a cheque.
  5. You have 4 years to claim — but there’s no reason to wait.
  6. If you think you overpaid but no P800 arrives by March, you can claim a refund directly without one.

For the full route map of fixing mistakes and getting refunds — amending a Self Assessment return, overpayment relief, P800 PAYE refunds, and chasing stuck repayments — see our fixing tax return mistakes and refunds hub. For the complete tax code guide — anatomy, emergency codes, P2 notices, and all refund routes — see our tax code explained hub. If you’ve already claimed a refund and it’s taking too long, see our guide on HMRC repayment delays and how to chase them. For more plain-English explanations of HMRC terms, browse the full jargon buster.

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