P85: Do You Actually Need One When Leaving the UK? (2026)

If you are leaving the UK, there is one HMRC form question to settle before anything else - and it is a fork, not a checklist: you file a P85, or a Self Assessment return with the SA109 residence pages - not both. GOV.UK's own rule is unambiguous: "You do not need to fill in this form if you are sending a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year that you leave the UK."

The P85 - officially "Leaving the UK - getting your tax right" - does two things: it tells HMRC you have gone, and it claims back any PAYE tax you overpaid in the part of the year you worked in the UK. If you leave a PAYE job in, say, September, you have used only half a year of income against a full year's worth of tax-free allowance spread across your payslips - so a refund is the normal outcome, not the exception.

Key points

• The P85 is for leavers who are not filing a Self Assessment return for the departure year - if you are in Self Assessment, the SA109 pages replace it entirely
• It notifies HMRC of your departure and claims your PAYE refund in one step
• The online service only works after you have left; before departure, the form goes by post
• Include parts 2 and 3 of your P45, or explain why you don't have one
• Filing a P85 does not make you non-resident - the Statutory Residence Test decides that separately

Who the P85 is for

HMRC's guidance aims the P85 at people who lived and worked in the UK and are either leaving the UK indefinitely, or going to work abroad full-time for at least one full tax year. The classic cases:

• You had a PAYE job, you are leaving for good (or at least indefinitely), and nothing else about your affairs requires a tax return
• You are being posted abroad by an employer for a multi-year assignment and will work full-time overseas

The form asks about your UK home, your work abroad, any salary that continues to be paid in the UK, and your expected UK visits over the next 3 years - all of which feed how HMRC treats your PAYE position after departure.

Who should skip it

Anyone filing a Self Assessment return for the departure year. That covers more leavers than you might expect, because leaving itself often creates the return requirement:

• You rent out your UK home after leaving. Rental income while you live abroad normally brings you into Self Assessment - and the non-resident landlord scheme applies on top
• You claim split year treatment on a return. Split year treatment itself applies automatically when the conditions are met, but if you file a return it is recorded on the SA109 residence pages
• You have self-employment, capital gains, or other income that already keeps you in Self Assessment

If any of those describe you, the P85 is redundant: your tax return - with the SA109 pages - handles both the notification and the tax calculation. Unsure which side of the fork you are on? The free P85-or-SA109 helper works it out in 3-4 questions.

How the refund actually arrives

This is the part that catches people after they have moved: HMRC pays the refund by payable order posted to the address you give - and depositing a sterling payable order from a foreign bank account can attract currency conversion and international handling fees that HMRC does not cover.

The practical fix is boring but effective: keep a UK bank account open until the refund has landed. Close it after, not before.

If you use the online service you get a tracking reference; the postal route gives you nothing to track, which is one more reason to file online if your departure date allows it.

The mistake underneath all the others

The P85 asks HMRC to treat you as someone who has left. It does not - cannot - decide whether you have actually ceased to be UK resident, because that is a Statutory Residence Test question: your day counts, your ties, your work pattern, assessed over the whole tax year.

Two ways this bites:

• Leaving late in the tax year. You will almost certainly still be UK resident for that year under the SRT - what limits your UK tax exposure is split year treatment, not the P85
• Leaving without really leaving. Keep a UK home, a UK job pattern, or heavy UK visits, and the SRT may keep you resident in the following years regardless of what the P85 said - the sufficient ties test caps your safe UK days based on how many ties you retain

So do the test first. The free SRT calculator works through all three stages - automatic tests, ties, day limits - in about 5 minutes, and tells you what your departure year and the years after it actually look like. Then file the form that matches the answer.

This article describes what the P85 is and who HMRC's guidance says it is for - it is not personal tax advice. If your situation involves dual residence, a tax treaty, or anything you are unsure about, take professional advice before filing.