1257L means £12,570 of your pay is tax-free across 2026/27. What the number and letter stand for, W1 and M1 markers, and a calculator to check your payslip.
A 1257L code tells payroll to release £12,570 of tax-free pay across the 2026/27 year before Income Tax starts. The number carries the tax-free amount, and the L records entitlement to the standard Personal Allowance. This page models that code against a salary and sets out what changes when the letter changes or a W1, M1 or X marker appears.
Enter your salary and the code on your payslip. The result updates as you type.
Of £35,000.00 gross a year: Income Tax £4,486.00, National Insurance £1,794.40, Take-home £28,719.60.
£35,000 sits in the basic Income Tax band — £15,270 below the higher Income Tax band, which starts at £50,270.
Saving £120 a month — about 5% of this take-home — becomes £7,941.48 in five years at an example 4%: try the savings calculator.
2026/27 rates, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, no student loan. Open the full calculator to change region, student loan or pension method.
Payslip showing different figures? The payslip checker works out what your pay and tax code should have produced and shows which assumption could explain the gap.
This helper explains common modelling patterns for PayBreakdown. It is not a full HMRC tax-code correctness checker.
Enter a code from a payslip, HMRC account, P45 or P60. Examples: 1257L, S1257L, BR, D0, 0T, K475 or 1257L W1.
For modelling in PayBreakdown, 1257L usually means about GBP 12,570 of tax-free pay is applied before PAYE Income Tax is estimated.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| Gross pay | Employment pay before PAYE deductions and pension or loan settings. |
|---|---|
| Income Tax | Tax estimated from the selected tax-year, region, tax code and taxable-pay assumptions. |
| National Insurance | Employee NI is calculated separately from Income Tax and may not follow the same bands. |
| Pension and loans | Pension method and student-loan plan can change take-home pay and payslip comparisons. |
| Pension contribution | Changing the rate or method can change taxable income, National Insurance and take-home pay. |
|---|---|
| Tax code and region | Scottish Income Tax, Welsh codes, emergency tax or a non-standard tax code can move the result. |
| Student loan plan | A different plan can change deductions because each plan uses its own threshold and repayment rate. |
| Bonus, overtime or second job | Extra pay and payroll timing can make a real payslip differ from the smooth annual estimate. |
| Tax code | HMRC tax-code changes, K codes, BR/D codes, or emergency markers can change PAYE deductions. |
|---|---|
| Cumulative basis | Week 1, Month 1 or non-cumulative payroll can differ from a smooth annual calculator estimate. |
| Pension method | Relief at source, net pay and salary sacrifice can affect taxable pay and take-home pay differently. |
| Payroll timing | Bonus, overtime, arrears, refunds, cut-off dates and corrections can all move a single payslip. |
| Why is the tax on my payslip higher than expected? | payslip difference |
|---|---|
| What do the main payslip lines mean? | payslip explainer |
| What tax code should I use for modelling? | tax code |
| How much does pension reduce take-home pay? | pension comparison |
| How does this affect a monthly budget? | budget planning |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The figures on this page are worked from 1257L tax code, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
Payroll reads the number and multiplies it by ten. The result is the tax-free pay the code carries for the 2026/27 year, released across your pay periods rather than all at once. HMRC builds the number from the other direction: it works out the tax-free amount your record supports, then expresses that amount as a code number in units of ten pounds. 1257 and £12,570 are the same statement written two ways.
Adjustments are carried in the number, not in the letter. A company car, medical cover, untaxed savings interest or tax owed from an earlier year each reduce the tax-free amount HMRC holds for you, and the code number falls with it. Marriage Allowance can move it the other way. A code with a much smaller number can still end in L, because the letter is unchanged by any of this and everything that differs sits in the number.
The number carries the allowance. The letter records the rule behind it, and some letters replace the number altogether.
A code with no marker after it runs cumulatively. At each payday payroll rebuilds the position for the whole year so far: the free pay released to that point, the gross paid to that point, the tax due on the difference, less the tax already deducted. That is why a cumulative code corrects itself as the year goes on, and why a low-paid month can produce a refund on the payslip without anyone claiming one.
These markers switch the running total off. Each pay period is then taxed as though it were the first of the year: one period's free pay against that period's gross, with everything paid earlier left out of the sum. The tax-code box on this page accepts W1, M1 and X after the code. Payroll software may also print NONCUM for the same basis, but that spelling is rejected here, so enter the code without it. Nothing corrects through payroll while a marker stands; the usual route out is HMRC issuing a replacement code once it has details from your current and previous employers.
Take 1257L on monthly pay. Multiply the code number by ten for £12,570 of tax-free pay for the year, then divide by twelve to get one month's free pay. In month one, payroll takes one month's free pay off month one's gross and applies the bands to what is left. In month six on the plain code, it takes six months' free pay off everything paid since 6 April, works out the tax due on that running total, then subtracts the tax already deducted in months one to five. On the same code carrying an M1 marker, month six is worked out on one month's free pay against month six's gross alone, and months one to five never enter the sum.
The estimate here is annual and cumulative. It does not run a week-by-week or month-by-month non-cumulative calculation, so adding a W1, M1 or X marker will not reproduce an emergency payslip. It applies a K code's addition in full and does not apply the half-of-pay limit, so a K-code estimate can show more tax than payroll is allowed to take from one period. Nor can the page tell you whether the code itself is right: that rests on HMRC's record of your allowances, benefits in kind, other income and any earlier underpayment. Check the code printed on the payslip against your HMRC online account or the HMRC app.
This estimate is worked out on £35,000 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
HMRC recalculates the tax-free amount whenever your record changes, then reissues the code number that matches it. On a code with no marker, the new figure is applied to the whole year at the next payday, which is why one payslip can move sharply and the next one settle back.
No. 0T applies no Personal Allowance but still runs pay through the normal bands, so a large enough salary crosses into the higher rate. BR charges one flat rate on everything from that job or pension. Either can appear where the allowance is already being used somewhere else, or where payroll does not have the details needed to give another code.
The code payroll has been issued is the one your deductions are worked out on until a replacement arrives. If a code needs to change, HMRC sends the new one to you and to the employer or pension provider. PayBreakdown can compare estimates, but it cannot correct a tax code or decide whether HMRC or payroll is wrong.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.