The BR tax code means all of your income from that job or pension is taxed at the basic rate of 20%, with no tax-free Personal Allowance set against it. It is normally used for a second job or a pension where your £12,570 Personal Allowance is already being used by your main job. If it is on your only job, or your main job pays less than £12,570, the code is probably wrong and you are overpaying.
What BR actually tells your employer
Most tax codes are a number and a letter, such as 1257L. The number tells payroll how much tax-free pay to give you across the year. BR has no number because there is no allowance to give. HMRC's employer guidance describes it plainly: tax is deducted "from all income at the basic rate", and the code is used "for a second job or pension".
You only get one Personal Allowance per tax year, however many jobs or pensions you have. HMRC normally gives it to the job that pays you the most. Every other source is then taxed from the first pound, and BR is the code that does this at 20%.
BR has relatives that work the same way at different rates:
- D0. All income from the job is taxed at the higher rate of 40%. Used where your total income takes this source into the higher rate band;
- D1. All income is taxed at the additional rate of 45%;
- SBR and CBR. The Scottish and Welsh versions of BR. For a Scottish taxpayer, SD0, SD1, SD2 and SD3 tax the whole source at the intermediate (21%), higher (42%), advanced (45%) and top (48%) rates.
HMRC chooses between BR, D0 and D1 based on your expected total income for the year. For 2026/27 the basic rate band covers the first £37,700 of taxable income, so basic rate tax applies up to £50,270 for someone with the standard allowance. A second job that takes total income above that line should be on D0, not BR. If it stays on BR, you will underpay and HMRC will collect the difference later.
How you end up on BR
There are two usual routes. The first is HMRC itself: when it learns you have two jobs or a job plus a pension, it issues a coding notice giving the allowance to one and BR to the other.
The second is the starter checklist, the form a new employer uses when you do not have a P45. It asks three questions and turns the answers into one of three statements:
- 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. Payroll uses the full Personal Allowance on the normal cumulative basis;
- Statement B. Since 6 April you have had another job that has ended, or one of those benefits. Payroll uses the Personal Allowance on a week 1/month 1 basis;
- Statement C. You have another job, or you receive a State, workplace or private pension. Payroll uses tax code BR.
Ticking "yes" to having another job sends you straight to Statement C. That is correct if the other job is continuing. It is a common error if the other job has already ended, which is a Statement B case.
When BR is right, and when it is not
BR is right when your main job's pay already uses your whole Personal Allowance. HMRC's own example is a permanent job paying £22,000 plus six weeks of seasonal work paying £1,800. The permanent job uses the full allowance, so the seasonal employer applies BR and deducts 20% of the whole £1,800, which is £360. Nothing is overpaid.
BR is wrong, or at least costly, in these situations:
- Your main job pays less than £12,570. Part of your allowance is unused. In HMRC's example, jobs paying £8,000 and £7,000 give total income of £15,000. The unused £4,570 of allowance can be given to the second job, leaving £2,430 taxable and tax of £486 for the year. On BR the second job would have been taxed on all £7,000;
- You only have one job. HMRC's records may still show an old employment, for example where a previous employer did not report that you left. Your current job may then be treated as the second one;
- You have started a pension and stopped working, or the reverse, and HMRC has given the allowance to the source that has ended.
HMRC's guidance says you can contact it to check whether your Personal Allowance can be split between your jobs, and warns that a split can leave you paying the wrong amount if your income varies or is irregular.
How to get a BR code changed
Start with the PAYE section of your Personal Tax Account or the HMRC app. It shows each employment HMRC holds for you, which one is using your Personal Allowance, and HMRC's estimate of your income for the year. From there you can tell HMRC that a job has ended, add a missing employer or update your estimated income.
If the code needs to change, HMRC says it will issue the new code to you and your employer within 15 working days. If you are paid monthly, it should appear on your next or the following payslip; if weekly, on your third. If you have just started a new job, HMRC asks you to wait 35 days before contacting it, so the new employer's details have time to arrive.
Your employer cannot simply change a BR code on your say-so. Once payroll has a code it keeps using it until HMRC sends a new one, so the fix goes through HMRC.
Getting overpaid tax back
When HMRC updates your code during the year, it compares the tax you have paid with the tax you should have paid. Any overpayment is usually refunded through your pay once the new code is in use. If the year has already ended, HMRC reconciles your income from all employers and pension providers and normally sends a P800 tax calculation showing a refund or an amount owed.
The reverse also happens. A BR code on a second job that should have been D0 leaves you short. HMRC will usually collect the shortfall by adjusting a future tax code, so a quiet underpayment this year can mean a smaller allowance next year.
BR and other codes in context
BR is not an emergency code. Emergency codes end in W1, M1 or X, or show as NONCUM on a payslip, and they work out tax on each pay period in isolation rather than on your pay for the year so far. BR gives no allowance at all. It is also different from 0T, which likewise gives no Personal Allowance but is used when your allowance has been used up or a new employer lacks the details to give you a proper code. For how a large one-off payment interacts with these codes, see our guide on how bonuses are taxed. The current bands are set out in our guide to UK tax brackets, and the allowance itself in our Personal Allowance guide.
The full list of letters is on HMRC's what your tax code means page, and the allocation rules for several jobs are in how tax works if you have more than one job.
Employers running payroll for staff with second jobs or pensions need starter checklists completed correctly and coding notices applied on time. Acumon's PAYE services cover new-starter coding and HMRC notices, and our income tax return team can reconcile a year of BR deductions and claim back any overpayment.