Do HMRC automatically refund overpaid tax?

Sometimes. After the tax year ends, HMRC reconciles PAYE records and sends a P800 calculation to anyone who overpaid, usually between June and the following March. If the letter says a cheque is coming, it arrives automatically within 14 days of the letter date with no action needed. If the letter invites you to claim online, the refund is not automatic, you must request it, and unclaimed amounts eventually default to a cheque. Self assessment overpayments are not refunded automatically either, you request repayment through the return or your online account.

How long does an HM Revenue & Customs tax refund take to arrive?

Once a P800 says you are due money, an online bank transfer claim is paid within 5 working days, and an automatic cheque arrives within 14 days of the date on the letter. The longer wait is usually upstream of that, HMRC issues P800s between June and the following March, so a refund for a year that ended in April may not be calculated until months later. Self assessment repayments typically arrive within a few weeks of the return being processed, longer around the 31 January peak.

What is a P800 tax calculation letter?

A P800 is HMRC's end-of-year reconciliation for people taxed under PAYE. It compares the tax you actually paid with the tax due on your income and says whether you overpaid or underpaid. It shows the income and allowance figures HMRC used, which is why you should check it against your P60 before accepting it. Self assessment filers do not get a P800, their reconciliation happens through the return.

How do I get a self assessment overpayment refunded?

Request it. When your return shows you paid more than the final liability, through payments on account or PAYE, you can ask for repayment on the return itself by entering your bank details, or afterwards through your online self assessment account. Without a request, HMRC tends to hold the credit against your next liability. If your income has dropped, you can also apply to reduce your payments on account so the overpayment never builds up in the first place.

Bookkeeping and Compliance

HM Revenue & Customs Tax Refund: How Refunds Are Paid

20 May 2026Emma Carter5 min read

What happens between HMRC deciding you overpaid and the money reaching your account. The P800 calculation, bank transfer against cheque, self assessment repayments, the real timescales, and how to tell a genuine refund from a scam email.

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Key takeaways

HMRC issues P800 tax calculation letters between June and the following March; the letter tells you whether you overpaid and how the refund will be paid.
An online bank transfer claim from a P800 is paid within 5 working days; an automatic cheque arrives within 14 days of the date on the letter.
If you are owed tax from more than one year, HMRC pays it as a single cheque for the whole amount.
Self assessment overpayments are repaid on request through the return or your online account, not through a P800.
Always check a P800 against your P60 before accepting it; the calculation is only as good as the income figures behind it.
HMRC never emails or texts a refund link asking for bank or personal details; forward scam texts to 60599 and emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk.

UK business owner reviewing HMRC tax refund paperwork on a laptop in a modern office

The Two Routes an HMRC Refund Can Take

Every HM Revenue & Customs tax refund reaches you down one of two tracks, and which one applies depends on how you pay tax, not on how much you are owed.

PAYE route: HMRC reconciles employer and pension payroll data after the year end, and if you overpaid it sends a P800 tax calculation letter. The refund follows from that letter.
Self assessment route: there is no P800. Your return is the reconciliation, and any overpayment becomes a credit you ask HMRC to repay.

This page is about that machinery: what the P800 says, how the money is actually paid, the real timescales, and how to spot the scam messages that imitate the process. If you have not yet made a claim and want to know what you can claim for, expenses, marriage allowance, leaving a job, start with our companion page on how to claim tax back from HMRC.

What a P800 Tax Calculation Says

HMRC sends P800 letters between June and the following March, once employers' final year-end submissions have been processed ^[1]. The letter sets out your income, allowances, the tax due, the tax actually deducted, and the difference. Three outcomes are possible: you overpaid and are due a refund, you underpaid and the letter explains how the shortfall will be collected, or (where more than £3,000 is owed or it cannot be coded out) HMRC issues a Simple Assessment instead ^[1].

Treat the P800 as a proposal, not a verdict. It is built from the figures HMRC holds, and if an employment is missing or a benefit in kind is doubled up, the arithmetic will be faithfully wrong. Check it against your P60 and payslips before you accept it.

Bank Transfer or Cheque: How the Money Is Paid

The P800 itself tells you which payment method applies ^[2]:

What the letter says	What you do	When the money arrives
You can claim online	Claim via the online service, your personal tax account or the HMRC app, using the P800 reference and your National Insurance number	Bank transfer within 5 working days
You will be sent a cheque	Nothing, it is automatic	Within 14 days of the date on the letter

Two useful details. First, if you are owed tax from more than one year, HMRC pays a single cheque for the entire amount rather than one per year ^[2]. Second, the online claim service can also be used to request a cheque if you prefer one, but the bank transfer is faster and removes the risk of a cheque going to an old address, so keep your address current in your personal tax account.

Worked Example: Reading a P800

Marcus, an employee in Derby, gets a P800 for 2025/26. It shows taxable pay of £28,000 and the standard personal allowance of £12,570.

Taxable income: £28,000 − £12,570 = £15,430.
Tax due at the basic rate: £15,430 × 20% = £3,086.
Tax actually deducted under PAYE (a wrong code ran for part of the year): £3,406.
Refund due: £3,406 − £3,086 = £320.

Marcus checks the £28,000 and £3,406 against his P60, they match, so he claims online and the £320 lands by bank transfer within 5 working days. If his P60 had shown different figures, the right move would be to contact HMRC before claiming, because a P800 built on wrong inputs can just as easily under-refund as over-refund.

Self Assessment Overpayments: Repayment on Request

If you file a self assessment return, your refund mechanics are different in three ways:

No P800. The return itself reconciles your position, so the refund shows up as a credit on your self assessment statement once the return is processed.
You must request repayment. Enter your bank details in the repayment section of the return, or request it afterwards through your online account. Left alone, HMRC will typically set the credit against your next payment on account or balancing payment.
You can stop the overpayment at source. Payments on account are based on last year's liability. If this year's income is lower, apply to reduce them rather than overpaying and waiting for the money back. We see this every year with clients whose trading dipped: reducing the July payment keeps the cash in the business instead of lodging it with HMRC.

Repayments requested with the return usually arrive within a few weeks of processing, though security checks and the post-31-January peak both stretch that. For the wider return process, see our sole trader and self employment blog.

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Checking the Status of a Refund

Three places to look, in order:

Your personal tax account or the HMRC app, which shows the tax you paid for previous years and any calculation in progress ^[3].
GOV.UK's "check when you can expect a reply" tool, if you have already submitted a claim and are waiting ^[4].
HMRC by phone or webchat, once the published timescale has passed. Have your National Insurance number and any P800 reference to hand.

Chasing before the published date rarely speeds anything up; the queue is the queue. What does help is making sure the claim went in by bank transfer rather than cheque, and that HMRC holds your current address and bank details.

Refund Scam Emails and Texts

The refund process is the single most imitated piece of HMRC correspondence, and the scam pattern exploits exactly the timeline above: messages spike in summer, when genuine P800s start arriving. The tells are consistent:

HMRC advises you not to open links or reply to any text offering a tax refund in exchange for personal or financial details ^[5]. A message that "offers a refund, tax rebate or grant" and asks for details is the scam signature ^[5].
A genuine refund starts with a letter, or appears inside your personal tax account when you sign in through GOV.UK yourself. It never starts with a link in an email or text asking for card or bank details.
Urgency is a red flag. Real P800 refunds have no expiry countdown; unclaimed online refunds simply default to a cheque.

Forward suspect texts to 60599 and emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk, then delete them ^[5]. If you have already entered details on a fake site, contact your bank first, then report it.

If the Calculation Is Wrong

Do not accept a P800 or Simple Assessment you cannot reconcile to your own records. Contact HMRC with the evidence, your P60, P45 or payslips, and ask for the calculation to be reworked. If the letter says you owe tax, do not simply ignore it either: query it promptly, because an unchallenged underpayment will be collected through your tax code or fall due for direct payment.

Where the numbers involve several employments, benefits in kind or years of errors, professional help pays for itself. Our team can review the calculation against your records, and our calculators help you sense-check the tax due on a given income. For help with a specific case, contact us, or browse the bookkeeping and compliance blog for related guides. And if the reason you overpaid is an unclaimed relief rather than a payroll error, our guide to claiming tax back from HMRC walks through every free claim route.

Sources

gov.uk: Tax overpayments and underpayments - GOV.UK
gov.uk: If your tax calculation letter (P800) says you're due a refund - GOV.UK
gov.uk: Check how much Income Tax you paid last year - GOV.UK
gov.uk: Check how to claim a tax refund - GOV.UK
gov.uk: Identify tax scam phone calls, emails and text messages - GOV.UK

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