One L of a tax code

overageandunderpaid

I have been retired for the past 7 years, I was born in 1942. Along with my state pension I have three employment pensions giving me in total an annual income which is less than £24k. I have recently received my tax coding for 2015/16 which is 266L; I am happy that the 266 is correct. however for the past 6 years my tax code has been followed by the letter P. I have visited the HMRC site but cannot find a reason for the change; can anyone give me an explanation please.


I was involved in a dispute with HMRC over unpaid taxes but this was resolved in Aug 2013 (after 2.5 years of arguing) when HMRC accepted that the taxes would be recovered from my pension provider. I cannot imagine that this has any bearing on the code change but you tell me please.

JezR

P code indicates 'You were born between 6 April 1938 and 5 April 1948 and entitled to your bigger full tax-free Personal Allowance'.

From 2015/16 however, the increasing personal allowance for those born after 5 April 1948 has caught up, so the P code becomes obsolete.

There is still a Y code for those born before 6/4/38, who get £60 more per year.

overageandunderpaid

Thank you JezR, I guessed that it was because the 'P' was disappearing but it is nice to have it confirmed.