Your situation
Tax codes for students with a part-time or holiday job
No special student code exists: the starter checklist decides your first code, and the Personal Allowance does the rest.
Tax on this payslip (month 3)
£0.00
Tax due to date minus tax already paid.
| Pay to date | £2,700.00 |
| Free pay to date | £3,144.78 |
| Taxable pay to date | £0.00 |
| Tax due to date | £0.00 |
| Tax already paid | £0.00 |
| With 1257L M1 | £0.00 |
HMRC’s cumulative method for 2026 to 2027. A real payslip can differ if your pay changed during the year or a past employer’s figures were used.
There is no separate tax code for students. Employers run PAYE for students exactly as for any other employee, so a part-time or holiday job gets the same Personal Allowance of £12,570 for 2026 to 2027 and normally the same code, 1257L. With that code, monthly pay below the PAYE threshold of £1,048 has no Income Tax taken, and weekly pay below £242 the same; a term-time job paying £900 a month therefore pays nothing. Without a P45 you fill in HMRC's starter checklist, and the statement you tick sets your first code: the allowance in full for a first job since 6 April, a month 1 basis if you already had a job this year, or BR if you have another job at the same time. A summer job paying £1,800 in July and August after no work since April has £0.00 of tax taken in total, because the cumulative code gives you the unused allowance of the earlier months. Any tax overpaid comes back through payroll or after the year ends.
Tax each month with a code
Tax in month 1 with 1257L
£0.00
| Tax over 12 months | £0.00 |
| Average each month | £0.00 |
| With 1257L instead | £0.00 |
Rules read on HMRC’s texts by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Same allowance, same codes
HMRC's guidance for employers is blunt: students are put through PAYE in the same way as other employees. Nothing in a code marks you as a student. The number still comes from your Personal Allowance, £12,570 in 2026 to 2027, which gives the standard code 1257L, and the letter still describes your allowance rather than your status (GOV.UK). If you live in Scotland the code starts with S, and in Wales with C, because the rates follow your main home.
What makes student tax look different is the size and timing of the pay. Term-time jobs are often small, and holiday jobs are short. Both sit comfortably inside the allowance for many students, so the code mostly decides whether a little tax is taken now and given back later, or none is taken at all.
The starter checklist decides your first code
Most students start a job without a recent P45. The employer then asks you to fill in the starter checklist, and three statements set the code used until HMRC sends its own:
- Statement A: this is your first job since 6 April and you have had no Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit since then. The employer uses the current Personal Allowance on a cumulative basis.
- Statement B: you had another job since 6 April that has ended, or one of those benefits. The allowance is used on a week 1 or month 1 basis.
- Statement C: you have another job now, or receive a pension. The employer uses BR.
A student who already had a job earlier in the same tax year, even one that has ended, ticks B rather than A. The checklist also asks for your National Insurance number, if you know it, and your start date.
Starter checklist: which code?
Code the employer uses
1257L
| Tax in the first month | £0.00 |
| Basis | cumulative |
Tax on typical student pay
The table shows the tax taken in a single month at different pay levels under each starter statement, with the 2026 to 2027 rates for England and Northern Ireland.
| Monthly pay | Statement A (1257L) | Statement B (1257L M1) | Statement C (BR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| £600 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £120.00 |
| £900 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £180.00 |
| £1,200 | £30.20 | £30.20 | £240.00 |
| £1,600 | £110.20 | £110.20 | £320.00 |
The cumulative code matters most for holiday work. Take £1,800 a month in July and August after no pay since April: statement A leaves £0.00 of tax over the two months, statement B takes £300.40, because the month 1 basis ignores the allowance of April to June. The difference is not lost, but you wait to get it back.
Student loans on the checklist
The starter checklist has its own section on student and postgraduate loans, and HMRC asks you to fill it in if you have a loan, even when you do hand over a P45. If you are still studying on the course the loan relates to, you go straight to the declaration. The plan types listed are Plan 1, 2, 4 and 5 plus the postgraduate loan, and which applies depends on where you applied and when your course started. Loan deductions are separate from Income Tax and do not change your code.
Getting overpaid tax back
Overpayment usually happens with statement B or C, or when a second job takes BR while the first leaves part of the allowance unused. If HMRC updates your code while you still work there and has your income details, it asks the employer to refund you through your pay (GOV.UK). When a job ends, keep your P45 and hand Parts 2 and 3 to your next employer. You can check the code and the income HMRC expects in your HMRC online account; if nothing is fixed during the year, HMRC reviews your tax after 5 April and writes to you, as explained in the refund guide.