1185L vs 1257L: what each tax code means, why 1185L is usually out of date in 2026, the £720 allowance gap it creates, and how to check which is right.
If you have compared an old payslip with a recent one, or started a new job and noticed the tax code looks different from a colleague’s, you might be staring at 1185L and wondering whether it is wrong. It usually is, or at least out of date.
The quick version of the 1185L vs 1257L question: 1257L is today’s standard code, 1185L is a leftover from several years ago, and if you are still on 1185L in 2026 without a good reason, you are quietly paying a little more tax than you should. Here is what each code means, how the two differ on your payslip, and how to check which one you should actually be on.
Both codes work the same way. The number is your tax-free personal allowance for the year, divided by 10. The letter L means you get the standard allowance with no unusual adjustment.
So 1257L means £12,570 tax-free, and 1185L means £11,850 tax-free. The £11,850 figure is not random. It was the standard UK personal allowance for the 2018/19 tax year. Codes tend to linger, so seeing 1185L in 2026 is a bit like finding a 2018 calendar still pinned to the wall.
The gap between the two codes is exactly £720 of tax-free allowance (£12,570 minus £11,850). That £720 does not vanish, it just gets taxed instead of protected.
Here is the 1185L vs 1257L difference with real numbers. Say you earn £30,000 a year, paid monthly.
On 1257L:
On 1185L:
The difference is £144 a year, or about £12 a month. Not life-changing, but it is your money, and if the code is simply stale there is no reason to hand it over. The gap is the same £144 for anyone in the 20% band, whether you earn £20,000 or £45,000, because it comes purely from the £720 of allowance being taxed rather than protected.
National Insurance does not change between the two codes. NI is worked out from separate thresholds, not from your tax code, so it is only your income tax that moves.
That £12 a month looks small in isolation, but it compounds. Someone who slipped onto 1185L in 2019 and never noticed has now been overpaying for the best part of seven years, which adds up to roughly £1,000 of tax that a correct code would have kept in their pocket. The good news is that HMRC lets you reclaim overpaid tax for up to four previous tax years, so even a long-running stale code is not a total loss once you spot it and put in a claim.
For the 2026/27 tax year, 1257L is the code the vast majority of UK PAYE workers should be on. You should have 1257L if all of these are true:
S, like S1257L).If that describes you and your payslip says 1257L, you are done. Everything is working as it should.
There are a small number of cases where 1185L is genuinely your correct code today. HMRC can reduce your allowance from the standard £12,570 down to £11,850 to claw back tax you owe, and £720 is a fairly typical adjustment. Reasons include:
In all of those cases, 1185L is doing exactly what it is meant to do, and you can see the reason spelled out in your HMRC account.
The far more common story is that 1185L is simply stale. If you have been in the same job since before 2019, and your allowance was never bumped up when the standard code moved from 1185L to 1250L in 2019 and then to 1257L in 2021, your employer’s payroll may still be running the old number. This happens more than people expect, usually where a small payroll team never received an updated code notice.
Here is what I would check first: does your HMRC account agree with your payslip? That single comparison tells you whether you are looking at a genuine adjustment or a leftover code that everyone forgot to update.
Three places to verify your code, in order of how much I would trust them:
Now compare the two sources. If HMRC shows 1257L but your payslip shows 1185L, your employer’s payroll is running an old code. Ring your payroll or HR team, tell them HMRC has you on 1257L, and ask them to update it. They can usually fix it in the next pay run, and any overpaid tax from earlier in the year comes back to you automatically once the cumulative code catches up.
If HMRC itself shows 1185L and you cannot see a benefit, debt, or second income behind it, call HMRC on 0300 200 3300. Explain that you have one job, no benefits, and no known underpayment, and ask why your allowance is reduced. If they agree it is an error, they will issue a corrected 1257L code to your employer.
Either way, do not just leave it. A wrong code that undercharges you now can turn into a bill later, and a wrong code that overcharges you is money sitting in the wrong account.
The personal allowance is still £12,570 for the 2026/27 tax year, and it is frozen at that level until April 2028. So 1257L remains the standard code, and there is no new code replacing it this year. If anything, the freeze makes stale codes easier to spot: 1257L should stay put for a few years, so a code that is materially lower with no explanation stands out.
What did change recently is how HMRC tells you about code updates. Since April 2026, most tax code notices are digital-first, landing in your HMRC online account rather than arriving as a letter. That is worth knowing, because if HMRC did move you from 1185L to 1257L, or the other way, the notice may be sitting in your account unread rather than on your doormat.
The higher-rate threshold is also unchanged at £50,270, and the basic rate stays at 20%, so the £144-a-year gap between the two codes holds for everyone in the basic-rate band.
If you want to see what your take-home pay should look like on 1257L at your salary or hourly rate, including tax, National Insurance, pension, and student loan, the NetPay app works it out for you. Free to download.
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1185L is still a valid code, but it is no longer the standard one. It represents a tax-free allowance of £11,850, which was the standard personal allowance back in the 2018/19 tax year. The standard code for 2026/27 is 1257L, worth £12,570 tax-free. If you are on 1185L today with no adjustments, it is almost certainly out of date.
The number is your tax-free allowance divided by 10. 1185L protects £11,850 a year from income tax; 1257L protects £12,570. That is a £720 gap. On the basic 20% rate, being stuck on 1185L when you should be on 1257L costs you about £144 a year, or roughly £12 a month.
Two common reasons. Either your employer's payroll is using an old code and never updated it after 2019, or HMRC has genuinely reduced your allowance by £720 to collect a small benefit-in-kind charge or an underpayment from a previous year. The HMRC app tells you which one it is.
Check the HMRC app or your Personal Tax Account first. If HMRC shows 1257L but your payslip shows 1185L, ring your payroll team and ask them to update it. If HMRC itself shows 1185L and you cannot see why, call HMRC on 0300 200 3300 and they will investigate.
Want to see your actual take-home pay?
NetPay UK works out your real net pay after tax, NI, pension and salary sacrifice, for hourly, shift and variable-income workers. Free to download.
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A note on financial advice: NetPay UK calculates take-home pay based on official HMRC tax rules. This article reflects rules in force at the time of publication (8 August 2026). Tax rules change. For complex situations, consult a qualified UK accountant or visit gov.uk/income-tax.
