Tax Code BR Second Job: Why You're Probably Overpaying
BR tax code on a second job means 20% tax on every penny with zero personal allowance. Here's what it costs you and how to fix it fast.
You picked up a second job to get ahead financially. HMRC's response? Take 20% of every pound you earn before you've spent a single penny of your personal allowance. That is the BR tax code in practice, and millions of UK workers are sitting on it right now without realising they may be handing over more than they legally owe.
- BR means Basic Rate: your second employer deducts 20% tax on all earnings with no personal allowance applied.
- BR is a default code. HMRC assigns it automatically when they have no instruction about where your personal allowance sits.
- If your total income across both jobs stays under £50,270, you should not be paying higher-rate tax, but BR can still cause overpayment.
- You can check whether your BR code is correct right now without waiting for HMRC to act first.
- A refund of overpaid BR tax is genuinely claimable, sometimes going back four tax years.
- BR Tax Code
- BR stands for Basic Rate. It instructs your employer to deduct income tax at the basic rate of 20% on your entire salary from that job, with no personal allowance applied. HMRC typically assigns it to a second job or pension when it assumes your personal allowance (currently £12,570) is already fully used by your main employment.
What BR Actually Means on Your Payslip
Find your payslip from your second job. Look for the tax code box. If it says BR, your employer is deducting 20% of every single pound you earn from that role. There is no tax-free slice. No personal allowance. Just a flat 20% off the top, from pound one.
For context: your personal allowance for 2025/26 is £12,570. Under your main job's tax code (usually 1257L), the first £12,570 you earn is tax-free. Under BR, that protection disappears entirely at your second job.
Now let us make that concrete. Say you work two days a week at a second job earning £800 a month. Under BR, you pay £160 in income tax every month, £1,920 a year. If that £800 a month still sits within your personal allowance because your main job only pays £10,000 a year, you legally owe nothing on that second income. Nothing. Yet BR takes £160 every month regardless.
That is not a quirk. That is a structural feature of a system that defaults to overcollection and relies on you to claim it back.
Why HMRC Assigns BR in the First Place
HMRC does not assign BR out of malice. It assigns it because it does not know where else to put your personal allowance.
When you start a second job, your new employer reports your employment to HMRC through PAYE. At that point, HMRC's system makes an assumption: your personal allowance is already spoken for at your first job. Until it has evidence otherwise, it instructs your second employer to deduct at the basic rate across the board. Hence: BR.
The logic has a certain bureaucratic tidiness to it. If HMRC gave every employer your full personal allowance, workers with multiple jobs would effectively get it twice, paying almost no tax across the board. The problem is that the opposite error, taking no allowance where some is legitimately available, is far more common and far more costly for the individual.
As covered in Tax Code New Job UK: What Actually Happens on Day One, the default coding process relies heavily on employers submitting starter declarations correctly. When that information is delayed or incomplete, BR becomes a placeholder that can persist for months.
The Three Situations Where BR Is Actually Correct
Before you call HMRC to complain, it is worth checking whether BR is in fact the right code for your situation.
1. Your main job uses your full personal allowance. If your primary employment pays more than £12,570 a year, your personal allowance is already fully allocated. BR on the second job is technically correct in this case, because you have no remaining allowance to apply. You will still owe 20% tax on second-job earnings above the threshold.
2. You have asked HMRC to keep allowances separate. Some people deliberately keep their tax affairs simple by not splitting allowances across employers. This is unusual but not unheard of.
3. HMRC has applied adjustments elsewhere. Underpaid tax from a previous year, taxable benefits from your main employer, or other income sources can all reduce your available personal allowance to zero. If that is the case, BR may be accurately reflecting your position.
The only way to know for certain which situation applies to you is to check your tax code. Do not guess. Do not assume. The numbers involved are too significant for that.
When BR Is Wrong and Costing You Real Money
BR is wrong, and potentially expensive, in several common scenarios.
Your main job earns less than £12,570
If your primary job pays below the personal allowance threshold, some or all of your £12,570 exemption is unused. That unused portion could legally be transferred to your second job's tax code, reducing or eliminating the BR deduction. HMRC will not do this automatically. You have to ask.
You have two part-time jobs with combined income under £12,570
This is more common than people realise, particularly for workers in hospitality, retail, or care who piece together income from multiple employers. If your combined annual earnings across both jobs stay below £12,570, you should technically pay no income tax at all. BR on either job would represent a full overpayment.
HMRC was slow to update your code after a job change
If you left a previous job where your personal allowance was used and started a new main job, HMRC's records may not reflect the change promptly. Your new employer might have issued a BR code as a default, even though your new main job now holds your full allowance. The code should update automatically via PAYE in real time, but delays happen and the difference can run to hundreds of pounds.
You are a higher-rate taxpayer with specific allowance arrangements
If your total income exceeds £50,270 and you have a second job, the tax picture becomes more complex. BR at 20% may actually undercharge you on second-job income that should be taxed at 40%. This is the reverse problem: HMRC may eventually reclaim underpaid tax through your code the following year, as described in P2 Notice of Coding: Act Now or Pay Later. Getting ahead of this is considerably less painful than discovering a large underpayment twelve months later.
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BR vs D0: When the Second Code Is Even Worse
If you earn above £50,270 across your jobs combined, HMRC may issue a D0 code on your second employment rather than BR. D0 means 40% deducted from every pound, still with no personal allowance. That is £400 in tax for every £1,000 earned at your second job.
For a worker doing weekend shifts earning £1,500 a month in a second role, D0 means £600 deducted per month, £7,200 over a tax year. If that assessment is wrong because, for example, your main job income has dropped or you have allowable deductions the code does not reflect, the overpayment is substantial. The Tax Refund for High Rate Taxpayers With a Wrong Code post covers the mechanics of reclaiming in this scenario.
There is also a Scottish variant to be aware of. Scottish taxpayers have different income tax bands, meaning the threshold at which D0 becomes relevant is slightly different. If you live in Scotland, the S1257L Scottish Tax Code: Are You Paying Too Much? post is worth reading alongside this one.
How to Fix a BR Tax Code That Is Wrong
You have three routes, each with different timescales.
Route 1: Your Personal Tax Account (fastest). Log in at gov.uk/personal-tax-account. You can see all your current tax codes, check the income HMRC holds on record for each employer, and in many cases request a code change directly. Changes made here can update your employer's code within days.
Route 2: Call HMRC. The income tax helpline is 0300 200 3300. Have your National Insurance number, both employers' PAYE references, and your expected income from each job ready before you call. Be prepared to wait; the average call wait time can be considerable, particularly January through March.
Route 3: Write to HMRC. Slower but creates a paper trail. Useful if your situation is complex, for instance if you have multiple income sources or deductions that need to be factored in. Address correspondence to HMRC PAYE, BX9 1AS.
Once HMRC issues a new tax code, your employer receives it electronically and should apply it from the next payroll run. You do not need to hand your employer anything; the system updates automatically.
If you are unsure what your code should be or whether BR is correct for your situation, check your tax code before contacting HMRC. Going into that call with clarity about what you expect to see, and why, makes the conversation considerably more productive.
What Happens to the Tax You Have Already Overpaid?
For the current tax year, HMRC typically recalculates at year end and issues a refund if you have overpaid. This arrives either as a cheque or a reduction in your following year's tax code, sometimes the latter without you asking for a cash refund explicitly. If you want the money back now rather than as a credit, contact HMRC directly.
For previous tax years, you can claim back up to four years of overpaid tax. So if your BR code was wrong throughout 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25, all four years are potentially in scope. The total can run to thousands of pounds.
If your situation is complex because you have income from multiple sources, self-employment earnings on top of PAYE employment, or child benefit that interacts with your tax position, the multiple income tax calculator can help you sense-check the numbers before you submit a claim.
The Bigger Pattern: BR as a Revenue Mechanism
It would be unfair to call BR a deliberate trap. But it is worth noting that the system defaults to overcollection, not undercollection, and relies on individual employees to identify and claim back the difference. HMRC does not proactively write to workers saying "we think your BR code may be wrong; here is what you might be owed." The burden of proof, and the administrative effort, sits entirely with the taxpayer.
For workers juggling two jobs, often because one income stream is not enough, that administrative burden is an additional tax on their time. The person most likely to be on BR is also the person least likely to have the bandwidth to navigate the Personal Tax Account, understand the legislation, or make a formal claim. That is worth acknowledging.
If you picked up a second job specifically to make ends meet, and BR has been quietly taking 20% of every pound you earn from it while some of your personal allowance sits unused, the refund you are owed is not a windfall. It is your money.
Start by finding out whether BR is right for your situation. Check your tax code today. It takes minutes, and the answer either reassures you that HMRC has it right, or it tells you exactly how much to claim back.
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