PAYE11075 - Coding: codes: how they are used and calculated: suffix codes: the suffix

There are five suffixes that can be included in a code, they are L, P, T, V and Y.

Suffix V is only a valid code up to 5 April 2009 because those individuals who qualified for the Married Couple’s allowance (aged 65 and over at 5 April 2000 but both under 75) will be aged 75 during the 2009-2010 tax year and will qualify for the aged 75 or over rate of Married Couple’s allowance. Suffix V can still appear in coding history for years before 6 April 2009.

The aim of the suffix is to make recoding work easier. Any of the main personal allowances may be changed in the Budget. A change in an allowance will mean that a huge number of codes will need amending.

By including a suffix within the code we can identify, to the employer, codes which contain a specific personal allowance. We can then tell the employer to increase all codes containing that suffix by a standard amount.

For example, the L suffix is used for codes that include the Personal allowance. If in the Budget, this allowance was increased by £200, we would then tell the employer to raise all codes with the L suffix by 20.

Four of the suffixes each relate to a specific Personal allowance

• L - Personal Allowance (aged under 65), or minimum Personal Allowance (aged 65 - 74) or Personal Allowance (aged 75 and over) and no Estimated income is present
• P - maximum Personal Allowance (aged 65 - 74)
• V - maximum Personal Allowance (aged 65 - 74) and Married Couple’s allowance (aged 65-74), and allowance restriction is standard for a basic rate individual (see note above - suffix V only valid before 6 April 2009)
• Y - maximum Personal Allowance (aged 75 and over)

The T suffix is used in cases where we do not want the employer to raise a code by the standard amount. They are codes we have to review before we tell the employer to make any changes.

The system will always allocate the suffix in line with the rules shown above. However, in some cases you may want the system to ignore these rules and allocate another suffix.

You can override the suffix on the system. You may need to do this

• If the individual asks for suffix T
• At a secondary source, to get a chosen suffix L, P or Y, which the system would not otherwise choose