Tax Code 1257L Explained

1257L is the most common UK tax code. The number 1257 means you get £12,570 of tax-free pay this tax year (the standard Personal Allowance), and L means you are entitled to that standard allowance with no adjustments. It applies to most people with one job or pension and no untaxed income or benefits. The Personal Allowance is frozen at £12,570 for 2026/27.

Tax-free allowance implied by this code: £12,570 a year (£1,047.50 a month).

How your pay is taxed on 1257L

Your employer spreads the £12,570 allowance evenly across the year – about £1,047.50 a month or £241.73 a week – and taxes everything above it at 20%, then 40% above £50,270 a year. Example (England, £30,000 salary, paid monthly): pay £2,500 – tax-free £1,047.50 = £1,452.50 taxable × 20% = about £290.50 Income Tax. National Insurance is 8% of pay above £1,047.50 = about £116.20. Take-home ≈ £2,093.30 a month (£3,486 tax and £1,394.40 NI a year). Because 1257L is cumulative, any allowance you didn't use earlier in the year (e.g. a gap between jobs) is given back in later pay packets.

Tax-free allowance from this code£12,570Cumulative

Income tax with this code	£3,486
Income tax with standard 1257L	£3,486
Difference per month	£0.00

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Why you might have this code

You have one job or pension and HMRC has no adjustments to make.
You do not receive taxable company benefits (car, medical insurance) or untaxed income HMRC collects through your code.
Your earnings are below £100,000, so your Personal Allowance is not being tapered away.
You gave your employer a P45 or ticked Statement A on the starter checklist.

What to do

Check the code HMRC holds for you in your personal tax account (GOV.UK sign-in) or the HMRC app – it also shows how the number was worked out.
Compare it with the code on your latest payslip. If they differ, ask payroll whether they have applied HMRC’s latest notice.
If you have a second job, only one job should normally use 1257L – the other usually gets BR, D0 or 0T.
If you are entitled to more (Marriage Allowance, job expenses like uniform cleaning), claim it and HMRC will raise your code.

See all tax codes or check your take-home with the UK salary calculator.

Where the number 1257 comes from

HMRC builds every suffix code the same way: it adds up the allowances you are due, takes off anything it needs to collect, and then drops the final digit of the result. HMRC’s PAYE Manual gives the rule and its one exception – net allowances of £1 to £9 become code 1, not 0. With no adjustments, your net allowance in 2026/27 is the Personal Allowance of £12,570, so the code is 1257L.

Because only the last digit is dropped, 1257L also covers small differences that HMRC rounds away. HMRC rounds allowances up to the next pound and deductions down to the pound below, so an allowance anywhere from £12,570 to £12,579 still prints as 1257L.

HM Treasury’s Budget 2025 keeps the Personal Allowance at £12,570 until April 2031, so 1257L should stay the standard code until then unless the law changes again.

Why your payslip tax is a few pence different

HMRC’s pay adjustment tables, which payroll software follows, don’t simply divide £12,570 by 12. They give each code number ×10 plus £9 of free pay a year. HMRC’s own 2026/27 manual-method example shows code 431L getting £1,439.68 of free pay by month 4, which is £359.92 a month, or £4,319 a year. On the same basis, 1257L gives about £1,048.25 of tax-free pay a month, not £1,047.50.

The tables also round taxable pay down to the whole pound before tax is worked out. On a £2,500 monthly salary in England, simple maths gives £290.50 of tax. The HMRC method gives £290.20. If you’re checking a payslip and you’re out by less than £1, this is almost always the reason – not a wrong code.

What 1257L deducts at different salaries

The table compares the tax a 1257L code takes from one job in England over a full year with the tax actually due. They match until income goes over £100,000. Above that, you lose £1 of Personal Allowance for every £2 of extra income, but a 1257L code keeps giving the full £12,570.

At £110,000 your true allowance is £7,570, so a leftover 1257L under-deducts £2,000 over the year. HMRC normally avoids this by issuing a reduced code with a T suffix (for example 757T) once it knows your pay. If you still see 1257L on a six-figure salary, expect a P800 or a Self Assessment bill.

Salary	Tax deducted on 1257L	Tax actually due	Result
£20,000	£1,486	£1,486	Correct
£30,000	£3,486	£3,486	Correct
£45,000	£6,486	£6,486	Correct
£60,000	£11,432	£11,432	Correct
£110,000	£31,432	£33,432	£2,000 under-deducted
£130,000	£39,432	£44,703	£5,271 under-deducted

What the L does when allowances change

The L suffix tells payroll that the code contains the standard Personal Allowance. HMRC’s manual explains why that matters: if a Budget raises the allowance, HMRC can tell every employer to add a fixed amount to all L codes at once instead of reissuing millions of codes. Its example is a £200 rise, which would add 20 to every L code. A T suffix is excluded from automatic uplifts like this.

At the start of each tax year your employer carries forward the code it already holds unless HMRC sends a new one. HMRC sends new codes between January and March. Employers must not carry a W1, M1 or X marker into the new year, so a temporary 1257L M1 becomes plain cumulative 1257L on 6 April.

Signs your 1257L is out of date

1257L is only right if nothing in your situation changes the starting allowance. Ask HMRC to review it if any of these apply:

A second job or pension is also using 1257L – only one source should normally get the full allowance.
Your income is heading over £100,000 (see the table above).
You’ve started getting a company car, fuel or private medical insurance. GOV.UK’s own example shows £1,570 of medical insurance turning 1257L into 1100L.
You live in Scotland or Wales but the code has no S or C prefix.
You’ve claimed Marriage Allowance, so the code should end in M or N.
You pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge through PAYE, or you have savings interest above your Personal Savings Allowance – both are normally collected by reducing the code.

Proving which code was used

The code your employer actually used appears on every payslip. Your P60 shows the code in use on 5 April and the total pay and tax for the year. Employers must give you a P60 by 31 May, either on paper or electronically. If you lose it, the same figures are in your personal tax account and the HMRC app. These are the figures HMRC uses to send a P800 if too much or too little tax was taken.

Frequently asked questions

Is 1257L the correct tax code for 2026/27?

Yes, for most people with one job or pension. The Personal Allowance remains £12,570 in 2026/27, so the standard code is still 1257L (or S1257L in Scotland and C1257L in Wales).

What does 1257L M1 or 1257L W1 mean?

It's the same £12,570 allowance applied on a non-cumulative (emergency) basis – each pay period is taxed on its own. See our 1257L M1 page for how that changes your tax.

Can I have 1257L on two jobs?

Normally no. Your allowance can only be used once, so two 1257L codes usually lead to underpaid tax and a P800 bill after the year ends. Tell HMRC which job should get the allowance.

Why does 1257L not give me £12,570 every month?

The allowance is annual. Your payroll gives you 1/12 of it (£1,047.50) each month, or 1/52 (£241.73) each week.

Is 1257L an emergency tax code?

Not on its own. 1257L becomes an emergency code only when it has W1, M1, X or 'non-cum' after it.

Why is the tax on my 1257L payslip slightly lower than online calculators?

HMRC’s payroll tables give about £9 a year more free pay than the code number ×10 suggests, and they round taxable pay down to the whole pound. That gives about £290.20 of tax on a £2,500 month instead of £290.50.

Will 1257L change in the next few years?

Budget 2025 froze the Personal Allowance at £12,570 until April 2031, so the standard code stays 1257L unless the rules change again.

Is 1257L right if I earn over £100,000?

No. The allowance starts tapering at £100,000, so HMRC should give you a lower code, usually with a T suffix. On 1257L you’ll be under-deducted and asked to pay the difference later.

Sources

Figures are taken from official government publications and were last reviewed on 2026-10-03.