Students: Working only in the holidays while being a student

If you are a student on a course in the United Kingdom and you work solely in the holiday periods (summer, Christmas, Easter) you may be able to receive your wages without Income Tax being deducted. You will need to complete a student exemption.

Form P38(S) (Opens new window).

To receive your wages without Income Tax being deducted you must:

  • be a student who is planning to continue being a student until after 5 April next
  • not have a total income from all sources - apart from student loans, scholarships and educational grants - in the tax year of more than £8,105 in 2012-2013

If you do not meet the P38(S) conditions, or you are on a non-UK college or university course, you should ask your employer for a form P46. Some employers may not give you a P46 to complete, but will ask you for the relevant information to allocate a tax code and work out the Income Tax due on your first pay day. HMRC will then tax you under a system called Pay As You Earn (PAYE). Once they have received your completed form P46 (Opens new window) or the relevant information from your employer, HMRC will:

  • issue you with a tax code that shows your entitlement to any allowances and deductions
  • inform your employer of your tax code to enable them to deduct the correct amount of Income Tax and National Insurance contributions direct from your wages

Please note: From 6 April 2013 employers will no longer use the P38(S) process, your employer will operate PAYE (Pay As You Earn) to deduct Income Tax and National Insurance from your wages.  If you are employed by an employer who is part of the Real Time Information (RTI) pilot, the normal PAYE process will apply from 6 April 2012.

Ways you pay Income Tax

National Insurance contributions

You will only pay National Insurance contributions (NICs) if you earn more than £146 a week or £632 a month. If you receive more than these amounts you will pay NICs at 12 per cent on anything over £146 a week (£632 a month) up to £817 a week (£3,540 a month) plus 2 per cent on any amount over £817 a week (£3,540 a month).