How to Get an S or C Tax Code When You Move to Scotland or Wales (2026/27)

This guide is general information, not advice.

This is for anyone who has moved into or out of Scotland or Wales, lives between two homes, or has noticed that their tax code does not start with the letter it should. The rates themselves are covered in our Scottish Income Tax guide; this page is the procedure for getting HMRC to apply the right ones.

By the end you will know whether you count as a Scottish or Welsh taxpayer for 2026/27, how to update HMRC so your code carries the right prefix, and what to check on your payslip afterwards.

Before you start

• Your moving date and, if you have more than one home, a clear idea of which one is your main home (see step 1).
• Your HMRC sign-in details for the online account, or the HMRC app on your phone. GOV.UK says you may need photo ID such as a passport or driving licence to prove who you are.
• Your National Insurance number, which the helpline asks for.
• Your current tax code, from your payslip, the HMRC app or a tax code notice.

Step-by-step

1. Work out whether you are a Scottish or Welsh taxpayer

GOV.UK’s rule is short: you pay Scottish Income Tax if you live in Scotland, and the Welsh rates if you live in Wales. Where you work, where your employer is based and where your pension provider sits do not count. HMRC’s STTG4300 gives the examples of someone living in Carlisle and working in Dumfries (not a Scottish taxpayer) and a Liverpool pensioner paid by an Edinburgh pension firm (also not one).

If you have two homes, it turns on your main home. GOV.UK says that is usually where you live and spend most of your time, whether you own it, rent it or live there for free. It may be the one where you spend less time if that is where most of your possessions are, where your family lives (if you are married or in a civil partnership), where you are registered for things like your bank, GP or car insurance, or where you belong to clubs.

If you cannot identify a main home, for example because you travel for work most of the time or have no permanent home, GOV.UK’s Scotland guidance tells you to count days: where you were at midnight decides which part of the UK a day belongs to, and more days in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK makes you a Scottish taxpayer for the whole tax year.

2. Update your address with HMRC

This is the step that moves your code. GOV.UK says you must tell HMRC your new address if you move to or from Scotland, and that you may pay tax at the wrong rate if you do not. The Welsh page gives the same instruction for Wales, and adds that if your main home is in Wales but you do not think HMRC has your correct address, you must update it.

Use one of these:

• Online: the Tell HMRC you’ve changed your address service, which updates your address for Income Tax, National Insurance, Child Benefit and State Pension in one go. GOV.UK says to wait until you have moved before using it.
• HMRC app: GOV.UK’s app page lists updating your name or address under “Manage your information”.
• Phone: if you cannot use either, call the Income Tax helpline on 0300 200 3300 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; +44 135 535 9022 from outside the UK), with your National Insurance number to hand.

If you have two homes and HMRC holds the wrong one as your main home, GOV.UK’s Scotland guidance says you can contact HMRC to change which home counts; the Welsh page tells you to update your address to show which is your main home.

3. Let HMRC issue the code

You do not choose the prefix. GOV.UK says HMRC tells your employer or pension provider which code to use, and for Wales that HMRC “will add a ‘C’ to the start of your tax code”. A Scottish taxpayer with the standard Personal Allowance gets S1257L. The same prefix goes onto any pension code, because GOV.UK says the S tells your “employer or pension provider” to deduct tax at the Scottish rate.

Other codes carry it too. GOV.UK’s list includes SBR, SD0, SD1, SD2, SD3 and S0T for Scotland, and CBR, CD0, CD1 and C0T for Wales. You do not need to ask your employer to change anything.

4. Check your payslip

GOV.UK’s tax codes guidance says that if your code needs to change, HMRC will tell you and your employer the new code within 15 working days. If you are paid monthly it should be on your next or the following payslip; if weekly, on your third. If the payslip still shows the old code after that, GOV.UK says to speak to your employer to check they have received it.

5. If you file Self Assessment, tick the box

GOV.UK says the online Self Assessment return has a box to tell HMRC you pay Scottish Income Tax. For Wales, it says that if you fill in an online return for the 2025 to 2026 tax year there will be a box to tell HMRC you pay the Welsh rates. GOV.UK also says that if you submit a Self Assessment return, your details are updated once you have reported an address change.

Deadlines and what happens next

There is no filing deadline for an address change, but the timing matters because status is decided for the whole tax year, 6 April to 5 April. HMRC’s STTG4100 says it is not possible to be a Scottish taxpayer for part of a tax year (split-year treatment in a year you arrive in or leave the UK is the exception).

After a move, GOV.UK’s test is whether you lived in Scotland, or Wales, for a longer period than anywhere else in the UK during that tax year. When HMRC changes your rate, it is backdated to 6 April of the tax year you moved, and the tax taken from your wages or pension is adjusted automatically so you pay the right amount across the whole year.

In 2026/27 the Welsh table on GOV.UK shows 20% from £12,571 to £50,270, 40% from £50,271 to £125,140 and 45% above that: the same figures as the rest of the UK outside Scotland. The Scottish bands differ; see the Scottish Income Tax guide and the England vs Scotland comparison rather than a restatement here.

Common mistakes

• Telling only your employer. Your employer applies the code HMRC sends; GOV.UK’s instruction is to update your address with HMRC.
• Updating before you move. GOV.UK says to wait until you have moved.
• Assuming a Scottish workplace makes you a Scottish taxpayer. It is where you live that counts.
• Forgetting the move out. Leaving Scotland or Wales needs the same address update, or you may stay on the S or C code.
• Assuming savings and dividends change too. GOV.UK says you pay the same tax as the rest of the UK on dividends and savings interest.

Worked example

You live in Manchester and move to a flat in Edinburgh on 1 October 2026, which becomes your only home. From 6 April to 30 September 2026 is 178 days; from 1 October 2026 to 5 April 2027 is 187 days. You have lived in Scotland for the longer part of 2026/27.

You update your address in the HMRC app after moving. Your code moves from 1257L to S1257L, and because the new rate is backdated to 6 April 2026, the tax taken from your remaining 2026/27 pay is adjusted so the year as a whole is taxed at Scottish rates. Had you moved on 1 January 2027 instead, England would have been home for longer, and you would be taxed at the rest-of-UK rates for 2026/27, and at Scottish rates for 2027/28 if you are still living there.

Related reading

• Scottish Income Tax 2026/27 - the six bands and how they compare.
• England vs Scotland tax comparison - take-home pay side by side.
• How to read a PAYE coding notice - checking the number behind the prefix.