Tax on a Christmas or seasonal temp job: your tax code, National Insurance and getting overpaid tax back
Why a Christmas temp job can be taxed at 20% from the first pound, how the starter checklist sets your code, NI per job, and how to get overpaid tax back.
The short answer
A Christmas or seasonal job is taxed like any other job: there is no seasonal or student exemption, and the employer takes Income Tax and National Insurance through PAYE "whether you work for a few hours, days, weeks, or months" (GOV.UK: how tax works if you have more than one job). What decides how much comes off is the tax code the employer starts you on, and that depends on the statement you tick on the starter checklist.
- It is your only job this tax year: you should get your Personal Allowance in the temp job, and if your total income for 2026/27 (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) stays under £12,570, no Income Tax is due at all.
- You already have another job: the temp job usually gets code BR and 20% comes off every pound. That is normally correct, because your allowance is being used by your main job.
- Too much was taken: you get it back through your next employer, a P50 claim once you have stopped working, or HMRC's check after the tax year ends. National Insurance works per job and per pay period, so it is not refunded the same way.
Which tax code a new temp job gives you
A new employer works out your first code from your P45 if you have one. If you do not (and if you are working for more than one employer you will not, because you have not left your other job), you fill in HMRC's starter checklist. It asks whether you have another job, whether you get a State, workplace or private pension, and whether since 6 April you have had another job that has ended or taxable Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit. Your answers pick one of three statements, and the checklist's employer guidance tells the employer which code each one means:
| Statement | When it applies | Code the employer uses | What it means for your pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | First job since 6 April, and no JSA, ESA or Incapacity Benefit since then | Current Personal Allowance (1257L), cumulative | Tax is worked out on your total pay so far in the tax year, so a job starting late in the year can use the allowance built up since April. |
| B | Only job now, but since 6 April you had another job (no P45) or one of those benefits | Current Personal Allowance on a Week 1/Month 1 basis | An emergency code: each pay is taxed as if you were paid that amount every week or month of the year. |
| C | You have another job, or get a State, workplace or private pension | BR | No tax-free amount in this job. Every pound is taxed at the basic rate, 20% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (SBR in Scotland, 20%). |
| None | The employer cannot get a P45 or a statement from you | 0T on a Week 1/Month 1 basis | No Personal Allowance at all in this job until HMRC sends a proper code. |
The codes are from the checklist and from HMRC's employer tool for working out a new employee's tax code, which gives 0T on a Week 1/Month 1 basis where the employer is "unable to get a declaration from your employee". What the cumulative and Week 1/Month 1 bases mean is from GOV.UK's emergency tax codes page: "Usually, your tax is worked out based on your total income so far in that tax year. If you're on an emergency tax code your tax is worked out based on what you're paid in that week or month only." A code ending W1, M1 or X, or NONCUM on the payslip, is an emergency code. The letter meanings (BR, 0T, SBR, CBR for Wales) are from GOV.UK: what your tax code means.
Fill the checklist in accurately. GOV.UK warns that if you do not, "you may be put on an emergency tax code, which can mean you pay too much tax at first", and the checklist itself says a wrong answer can mean paying the wrong amount of tax or student loan. Ticking statement A when you actually have another job does not save tax: it gives the temp job an allowance your main job is already using, and the shortfall is collected later. If you have already had your first pay, GOV.UK says not to use the checklist and to check your code with the Check your Income Tax service instead. More on emergency codes and how long they last: emergency tax guide.
A temp job on top of your main job: why BR is usually right
You get one Personal Allowance a year, not one per job. GOV.UK: "You only get one Personal Allowance for each tax year even if you have income from more than one job, pension, or other source", and it is "usually allocated to the job that pays you the most". If your main job pays more than the allowance, the temp job's pay is taxed in full, and BR does exactly that (GOV.UK: how tax works if you have more than one job).
Worked example for 2026/27, following the shape of HMRC's own seasonal-work example on that page, with England rates: a permanent job paying £22,000 and 6 weeks of seasonal work at £300 a week (£1,800).
- The permanent job uses the whole £12,570 allowance, so £9,430 of it is taxed at 20%: £1,886.
- The seasonal employer uses BR: 20% of £300 is £60 a week, £360 in total.
- Tax for the year: £2,246. The total income of £23,800 is inside the basic-rate band, so nothing is owed or refunded at the year end.
- National Insurance on the seasonal job: 8% of the £58 above the £242 weekly threshold, £4.64 a week, £27.84 over the 6 weeks. This is on top of whatever the main job deducts.
If the extra pay would take your total income into the higher-rate band, the second job's code can be D0 instead (all of it taxed at the higher rate): GOV.UK lists BR, D0 and D1 as the usual second-job codes and says they "depend on what your total income is across all sources for the tax year". To try other figures, the two jobs calculator applies one Personal Allowance across both incomes and National Insurance to each job separately; for the main job alone use the salary calculator. A fuller walkthrough of second jobs is in second job tax explained.
When BR is too much: splitting the allowance
BR overtaxes you only when your main job pays less than the allowance, for example a part-time job paying well under £12,570 a year. GOV.UK says any allowance the main job does not use "might be allocated to your other job or jobs depending on your circumstances", and tells you to contact HMRC "to check if your Personal Allowance can be split between your jobs", which "can reduce how much tax is taken from other job or jobs, during the tax year". It adds a warning: if the allowance is split "and your income varies or is irregular, you might not pay the right amount of tax". Short seasonal work is irregular by nature, so a split is a judgement call.
You can also check which job holds your allowance, update your estimated income and add a missing employer in the PAYE section of your personal tax account or the HMRC app, per the same page. After you update your details, HMRC tells you and your employer the new code "within 15 working days"; if you have just started a job, GOV.UK asks you to "wait 35 days for HMRC to get your new income details before contacting them" (GOV.UK: if you think your tax code is wrong). If you do nothing, HMRC checks the tax across all your jobs after the year ends and sends a P800 if you paid the wrong amount.
National Insurance: per job, per pay period
National Insurance does not have a yearly allowance shared across jobs. HMRC's National Insurance Manual says each employee is given "an earnings period in relation to each employment held" (NIM08001), and that where someone works for different employers at the same time "contributions for each employment are normally calculated separately" (NIM10003; the exceptions, where earnings are added together, include employers who carry on business in association, per GOV.UK's employer guidance on more than one job).
For 2026/27, employee Class 1 is 8% on pay above £242 a week (£1,048 a month) in each job, up to £967 a week (GOV.UK: how much you pay; employer rates and thresholds). Three things follow:
- A small temp job paying £242 a week or less pays no employee National Insurance, even if your main job pays a lot.
- From £129 to £242 a week from one job you "do not usually pay National Insurance but may still qualify for certain benefits and the State Pension", according to GOV.UK.
- A big week (overtime in the run-up to Christmas) is assessed on its own. A week over the threshold pays National Insurance even if your earnings for the whole year are low, and there is no year-end top-up of an allowance to give it back.
The opposite problem, paying too much National Insurance across two well-paid jobs, is dealt with by deferment, which needs £967 or more a week from one job. That does not apply to a typical Christmas job.
Students and holiday jobs
There is no student exemption from Income Tax or National Insurance. GOV.UK's student jobs page says "If you have a job when you're a student you may need to pay Income Tax and National Insurance", and HMRC's employer guidance says to "Operate PAYE on students in the same way as you do for other employees" (GOV.UK: new employee). Income Tax is only due on income above the Personal Allowance, £12,570 for 2026/27; the student page puts the National Insurance point at earnings over £242 a week.
Take a student whose only paid work in 2026/27 is 6 weeks at £300 a week (£1,800):
- Total income is under £12,570, so no Income Tax is due for the year.
- On statement A (cumulative 1257L) tax is worked out on pay so far in the year against the allowance built up since 6 April, so a job that starts late in the tax year should normally deduct little or nothing.
- On BR, or on 0T Week 1/Month 1 because no checklist was handed in, 20% comes off every pound (England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates): £60 a week, £360 in total. All of it is overpaid and can be reclaimed (next section).
- National Insurance of £4.64 a week is due in each week the pay is over the £242 threshold, whatever the annual total.
On the checklist's student loan question, if you are still studying on the course your loan relates to, the form sends you straight to the declaration without choosing a plan, so no student loan should be deducted (starter checklist, questions 11 and 12). If you normally live and study in the UK and work abroad in the holidays, GOV.UK says you still pay UK tax on earnings above the allowance, and UK National Insurance if the employer is a UK one.
Getting overpaid tax back
Which route applies depends on what you do after the temp job. All of these are from GOV.UK's claim a tax refund tool (the "pay from a job" answers) and the pages it links to.
| Your situation | How the refund reaches you |
|---|---|
| Still in the temp job, or a job you hold alongside it | Once HMRC corrects your tax code, the employer refunds you through pay. GOV.UK: monthly-paid, on the next or following pay; weekly-paid, on the third pay after the employer gets the new code. |
| Temp job ended, starting another job (within 4 weeks) | Give the new employer parts 2 and 3 of your P45. Overpaid tax comes back through your pay. |
| Temp job ended but you kept a job you already had before it | Refund at the next review of your tax code, "usually at the end of the current tax year". |
| Stopped working: back to full-time study, not expecting to work again, or out of work 4 weeks or more without taxable benefits | Claim online or on form P50 after your final pay. HMRC says to wait at least 14 days before chasing, and sends a cheque (payable order) within 5 weeks of processing the claim. Not available while you are still registered with an employment agency. |
| Claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, ESA or another listed benefit | Give Jobcentre Plus parts 2 and 3 of your P45; any refund comes at the end of the tax year or when you start a new job. |
| You did nothing | After 5 April HMRC checks your tax and, if you overpaid, sends a P800 tax calculation letter "between June and March of the following tax year". An online claim pays into your bank within 5 working days; a posted cheque arrives within 14 days of the letter date. |
Sources for the table: the claim-a-refund tool; the P50 guidance (stopped work, full-time study, the 4-week and agency conditions); GOV.UK's if you've paid too much or too little tax (refund timing through pay); and tax overpayments and underpayments (P800 timing and payment). Your P45 shows your pay and tax so far in the tax year, so keep it (GOV.UK: P45).
What a P800 says and how to check it: P800 tax calculation letter. Every refund route in one place, including earlier tax years: tax refund guide.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Christmas temp job taxed at 20% when I earn so little from it?
If you told the new employer you already have another job (statement C on the starter checklist), they use tax code BR, which taxes every pound at the basic rate of 20%. Your Personal Allowance is usually given to your main job, so the temp job has none. If your main job pays more than the allowance, that is the right amount of tax, not a mistake.
Do students pay tax on a Christmas job?
There is no student exemption. Employers must run PAYE for students in the same way as for anyone else. What protects most students is the Personal Allowance of £12,570 for 2026/27: if total income for the tax year stays under it, no Income Tax is due, and anything deducted can be claimed back.
Do I pay National Insurance on a second job?
Each job is assessed separately for each pay period. For 2026/27 employee Class 1 starts above £242 a week (£1,048 a month) in that job, so a small second job can pay none even if your main job pays plenty. There is no annual allowance to reclaim against at the year end.
How do I get back tax overpaid on a temp job?
If you start another job, give the new employer your P45 and the refund comes through your pay. If you have stopped working, you can claim with form P50 or online once you have had your final pay and have gone back to full-time study, do not expect to go back to work, or have been out of work for 4 weeks. Otherwise HMRC checks your tax after 5 April and sends a P800 letter between June and March.
Can I split my Personal Allowance between my main job and a temp job?
GOV.UK says to contact HMRC to check whether your Personal Allowance can be split between your jobs. It is mainly useful where your main job pays less than the allowance. If your income varies or is irregular, a split can still leave you paying the wrong amount, which HMRC corrects after the tax year.